Learning to explain: How student teachers organise and present content knowledge in lessons they teach

Abstract

Abstract The ability to organise content knowledge around key concepts is an essential part of what student teachers need to learn in order to teach effectively. This is particularly significant as South Africa's education system emerges from policies which undervalued the role of content knowledge in teaching and teacher education. During sessions of practical teaching, university tutors have opportunities to observe how students understand content knowledge in ways that differ from their university coursework. Students’ understanding of content knowledge manifests in how they select and organise concepts, conduct explanations and respond to learners’ contributions. Lesson observation reports written by university tutors, as they observed student teaching, were scrutinised for comments that prompted student teachers to think about their understanding of content knowledge. A qualitative analysis of these comments shows how opportunities for learning are diminished when student teachers’ grasp of their les...