Ball, Thames, & Phelps (2008)

The article Content Knowledge for Teaching: What Makes It Special? was written by Deborah Ball, Mark Thames, and Geoffrey Phelps and published in the Journal of Teacher Education in 2008. The article is available from SAGE Publications at http://jte.sagepub.com/content/59/5/389.

Abstract

This article reports the authors' efforts to develop a practice-based theory of content knowledge for teaching built on Shulman's (1986) notion of pedagogical content knowledge. As the concept of pedagogical content knowledge caught on, it was in need of theoretical development, analytic clarification, and empirical testing. The purpose of the study was to investigate the nature of professionally oriented subject matter knowledge in mathematics by studying actual mathematics teaching and identifying mathematical knowledge for teaching based on analyses of the mathematical problems that arise in teaching. In conjunction, measures of mathematical knowledge for teaching were developed. These lines of research indicate at least two empirically discernable subdomains within pedagogical content knowledge (knowledge of content and students and knowledge of content and teaching) and an important subdomain of "pure" content knowledge unique to the work of teaching, specialized content knowledge , which is distinct from the common content knowledge needed by teachers and nonteachers alike. The article concludes with a discussion of the next steps needed to develop a useful theory of content knowledge for teaching.

Summary of Content Knowledge for Teaching: What Makes It Special?

Ball, Thames, & Phelps begin by looking at the 20+ years since Shulman (1986) introduced his theories of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Despite the PCK's widespread use, Ball and colleagues claim it "has lacked definition and empirical foundation, limiting its usefulness" (p. 389). In fact, the authors found that a third of the more than 1200 articles citing Shulman's PCK

do so without direct attention to a specific content area, instead making general claims about teacher knowledge, teacher education, or policy. Scholars have used the concept of pedagogical content knowledge as though its theoretical founcations, conceptual distinctions, and empirical testing were already well defined and universally understood. (p. 394)

To build the empirical foundation that PCK needs, Ball and her research team did a careful qualitative analysis of data that documented an entire year of teaching (including video, student work, lesson plans, notes, and reflections) for several third grade teachers. Combined with their own expertise and experience, and other tools for examining mathematical and pedagogical perspectives, the authors set out to bolster PCK from the ground up:

Hence, we decided to focus on the work of teaching. What do teachers need to do in teaching mathematics — by virtue of being responsible for the teaching and learning of content — and how does this work demand mathematical reasoning, insight, understanding, and skill? Instead of starting with the curriculum, or with standards for student learning, we study the work that teaching entails. In other words, although we examine particular teachers and students at given moments in time, our focus is on what this actual instruction suggests for a detailed job description. (p. 395)

For Ball, Thames, and Phelps, this includes everything from lesson planning, grading, communicating with parents, and dealing with administration. With all this information, the authors are able to sharpen Shulman's PCK into more clearly defined (and in some cases, new) "Domains of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching." Under subject matter knowledge, the authors identify three domains:

• Common content knowledge (CCK)
• Specialized content knowledge (SCK)
• Horizon content knowledge

And under pedagogical content knowledge, the authors identify three more domains:

• Knowledge of content and students (KCS)
• Knowledge of content and teaching (KCT)
• Knowledge of content and curriculum

Ball describes each domain and uses some examples to illustrate, mostly from arithmetic. The following descriptions use concepts from algebra.

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See Also

• Blog post by Raymond Johnson
• [1] by Bud Talbot

APA

Ball, D. L., Thames, M. H., & Phelps, G. (2008). Content knowledge for teaching: What makes it special? Journal of Teacher Education, 59(5), 389–407. doi:10.1177/0022487108324554

BibTeX

@article{Ball2008,
abstract = {This article reports the authors' efforts to develop a practice-based theory of content knowledge for teaching built on Shulman's (1986) notion of pedagogical content knowledge. As the concept of pedagogical content knowledge caught on, it was in need of theoretical development, analytic clarification, and empirical testing. The purpose of the study was to investigate the nature of professionally oriented subject matter knowledge in mathematics by studying actual mathematics teaching and identifying mathematical knowledge for teaching based on analyses of the mathematical problems that arise in teaching. In conjunction, measures of mathematical knowledge for teaching were developed. These lines of research indicate at least two empirically discernable subdomains within pedagogical content knowledge (knowledge of content and students and knowledge of content and teaching) and an important subdomain of “pure” content knowledge unique to the work of teaching, specialized content knowledge , which is distinct from the common content knowledge needed by teachers and nonteachers alike. The article concludes with a discussion of the next steps needed to develop a useful theory of content knowledge for teaching.},
author = {Ball, Deborah Loewenberg and Thames, Mark Hoover and Phelps, Geoffrey},
doi = {10.1177/0022487108324554},
journal = {Journal of Teacher Education},
keywords = {mathematics, teacher knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge},
number = {5},
pages = {389--407},
title = {{Content knowledge for teaching: What makes it special?}},
url = {http://jte.sagepub.com/content/59/5/389},
volume = {59},
year = {2008}
}