7.3 How can we help trainees access teachers’ professional knowledge?
(see unit 4.2 for similar issues)

Husbands, Pendry and Kitson (2003) categorise teacher’s knowledge of their classroom as knowledge about history, knowledge about pupils and knowledge about the types of activities and resources that could help pupils meet the lesson goals. But by exploring the relationship between these different types of teacher knowledge, trainee teachers can understand how learning can happen. For example, knowledge that many pupils in a class have the simplistic idea that change equals progress in the past can lead the teacher into identifying an area of the history curriculum where such notions can be challenged. In addition, knowledge of resources and activities that can illuminate this idea would also be drawn on. The teacher would then select particular resources or teaching approaches dependent on their knowledge of the pupils and what is most likely to be successful.

Activity 7.3.1 Accessing a teacher’s professional knowledge