ABSTRACT
Educational researchers have proposed that teachers must have an understanding of subject matter content and employ effective teaching strategies to teach well and make ideas accessible to others. In fact, studies have shown that teachers with stronger content knowledge pose more questions and are more likely to have students pose alternative explanations, propose more investigations, and pursue unanticipated inquiries than teachers with weaker content knowledge. The student teachers repeatedly went back to the standards, saying things like, “Well, they need to know what a constellation is” or, “They need to know that the constellations aren’t moving, but the earth is spinning, which makes them look like they are.” Growing plants and watching small animals grow are examples of projects that students can do to observe life cycles in action. Sorting the students in the class is an easy way for them to see the variance of traits they have.
