PCK

In preparation for assignment 2, the week 4 learning path brought the concept of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) to my attention. However, this is not an entirely new concept to myself given that I have encountered it in past assignments. In this article PCK is defined as teachers’ interpretations and transformations of subject-matter (content) knowledge in the context of facilitating student learning (pedagogy). This article also proposes some essential elements of PCK and the few that stood out to me, and what I believed to be most relevant for assignment two were the following:

 

1. Knowledge of representations of subject matter (content knowledge)
2. General pedagogical knowledge (teaching strategies)
3. Curriculum knowledge
4. Knowledge of the purposes of education

 

I believe elements 3 and 4 are highly relevant to assignment 2 given that we must have a good understanding of the Australian Curriculum (relevant to ‘my somewhere’) and knowledge of the purposes of education. Given that when designing the unit plan we must keep in mind the learning objectives, then this element is highly relevant.