ABSTRACT
To state the obvious, teachers teach subject matter. Whatever the teacher’s style, methods and approaches, the teacher is of no consequence if she does not intend to communicate subject matter to her pupils. (The phrase ‘subject matter’ is used as a shorthand at this stage to include material which is taught within the context of conventional subject boundaries such as ‘maths’ or ‘history’, and material collected together according to different principles, as with ‘topic work’ or ‘centres of interest’.) Subject matter not only includes formal information and facts, it also embraces an understanding of related underlying concepts, the acquisition of skills, and the development of relevant attitudes. All discussions about teachers’ teaching styles and their methods, as well as conjectures about the nature of children’s learning and how teachers may promote that learning, count for nothing unless the subject matter which is communicated during the teaching-learning process is brought to the forefront of our consideration of teaching and learning in the classroom. It is doubtful whether individual teachers have a distinct style or one approach to their teaching all the time.1 As one would expect, teachers teach differently in different circumstances and the manner in which they teach depends, in part, upon the material they are teaching.2 Subject matter itself has a significant effect upon the way in which teachers teach. This may be because characteristics inherent within the subject itself dispose the same teacher to deploy alternative pedagogic practices in different subject areas.
