ABSTRACT
The freedom coaches have to select the content they use in their practice sessions may be part of the reason why discussions on content have not had a high profile with sports scientists. Yet being aware of some of the educational discussions that surround the notion of content knowledge may assist coaches to provide athletes maximum opportunities to learn. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce, into the sports coaching context, a discussion that highlights the complexity of a coach’s content knowledge by drawing on the work of Shulman (1986) and Metzler (2000). The chapter begins with a discussion of the work of these two scholars. Specifically, it discusses how Shulman breaks down the notion of content knowledge into three sub-sets: subject-matter content knowledge; pedagogical content knowledge; and curriculum content knowledge, and how Metzler breaks the three sub-sets of content knowledge into three more categories: declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and conditional knowledge. In keeping with the book’s general philosophy, we then proceed to highlight other aspects of content knowledge
Introduction 123 What is content knowledge? 124 Additional things to consider when thinking about content
knowledge 125 (Re)thinking coaches’ knowledge 128 Concluding thoughts 129
not explicitly discussed by Shulman (1986) and Metzler (2000) but which we consider to be useful for coaches who strive to become quality coaches. We conclude the chapter by questioning the desire many have for ‘certainty’ and getting things ‘right’ (Cassidy and Tinning 2004) and what this means for coaches’ content knowledge.
