It is about education.how to learn ..it is about knowledge and skill.how to make career in

1. CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
The term content knowledge refers to the body of knowledge and information that teachers
teach and that students are expected to learn in a given subject or content area, such as English
language arts, mathematics, science, or social studies. Content knowledge generally refers to
the facts, concepts, theories, and principles that are taught and learned in specific academic
courses, rather than to related skills—such as reading, writing, or researching—that students
also learn in school
While the term may be considered unnecessary jargon by some, the use of “content knowledge”
has grown significantly in recent decades, in large part because educators now commonly
use the term as a shorthand way to articulate a useful technical distinction between “knowledge”
and “skills” (see Debate below for further discussion).
Reform
In recent decades, public-school teachers have been required, in most cases, to attain certification
in the subject area they teach, which can require education and training beyond a four-year
college degree. Many teachers earn a master’s degree in education or in a specific academic
field, such as biology, chemistry, or physics, for example.
In general, the push to increase certification or educational requirements for teachers is based, in
part, on research and other evidence suggesting that teachers who are highly knowledgeable in a
specific field tend to be more effective teachers. For example, a teacher with a master’s degree in
biology may, on average, be less effective teaching a chemistry course than a teacher with an
advanced degree in chemistry. Such findings have prompted discussion about whether it is more

2. important for teachers to be highly educated in a specific content area, such as physics, rather
than in general science education or educational theory, for example. In addition, some
educators, researchers, and reformers argue that teachers also need to develop strong
“pedagogical content knowledge”—i.e., mastery of both subject-area knowledge and the most
effective ways to teach students that specific subject.
In elementary schools, teachers have traditionally taught multiple content areas to a class of
students, and most elementary schools continue to use this model. Some schools, however, are
assigning teachers to subject-specific courses or lessons based on their particular expertise and
training, and students are moved from class to class or teacher to teacher throughout the day.
When used with younger students, this approach can be controversial, since some educators and
parents believe that moving students from teacher to teacher can inhibit the development of
strong relationships with adults and adversely affect learning.
Debate
One ongoing debate related to content knowledge centers on the distinction between
“knowledge” and “skills,” and whether it is more important for schools to emphasize the
teaching of knowledge or the teaching of skills. Some educators argue that it’s not possible to
teach academic and intellectual skills—e.g., reading, writing, critical thinking, problem solving,
researching—separate from content knowledge and conceptual understanding, given that
students can’t learn to write well, for example, if they don’t have ideas, facts, principles, and
philosophies to write about. While some educators contend that academic and intellectual skills
can’t be separated out from subject-area knowledge and instruction, others may argue that
“cross-disciplinary skills” have historically been ignored or underprioritized in schools, and the
push to give more attention to these skills is simply a commonsense response to a changing
world. Still others may argue that the “knowledge vs. skill” debate is not only a distraction, given
that students need to be taught both knowledge and skills, but that it’s a false dichotomy because
it’s impossible to learn skills without content or learn content without skills (i.e., the distinction
only exists in the abstract; in the real world, the two are inextricably connected and
interdependent). For a related discussion, see 21st century skills.
The Glossary of Education Reform by Great Schools Partnership is licensed under a Creative
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