Portraying Physical Education-Pedagogical Content Knowledge for the Professional Learning of Physical Educators

• Published in: The Physical educator Vol. 68; no. 2; pp. 98 - 112
• Main Author: You, JeongAe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Urbana Sagamore Publishing LLC 22.03.2011; Sagamore Publishing
• Subjects: Definitions; Education; Educational Research; Expertise; Learning; Methods; Pedagogical Content Knowledge; Physical Education; Physical education and training; Physical Education Teachers; Practice; Professional development; Teacher Characteristics; Teacher Education; Teacher Effectiveness; Teacher Improvement; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching Methods; United States
• ISSN: 0031-8981; 2160-1682

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is one of the most critical components in teaching expertise. It helps understand the crucial points that teaching is more than just delivering subject content knowledge to students, and that student learning is considerably more than absorbing information. Since the seminal studies of Shulman (1986, 1987), a number of scholars have worked on the definitions of PCK as well as on the components or elements, but these scholarly examinations of definitions and elements have not considered the nature and characteristics of each individual subject matter field included in the school curriculum. Thus, this paper tries to redefine pedagogical content knowledge in physical education (PE-PCK) and to identify the components of PE-PCK through synthesizing related literature on PCK in education and physical education. This paper will be meaningful, first, to the teaching community by providing practical insights that will guide teachers along the road toward professional learning in the development of PE-PCK and, second, to the research community by facilitating research agendas in the areas of teaching and teacher education. (Contains 2 figures.)