Relationships Between Prior Experiences and Subject Matter Knowledge

Purpose

Shulman (1986) has distinguished between three forms of content knowledge: Subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and curricular knowledge. Most research on content knowledge focuses on pedagogical content knowledge. These studies typically conclude by suggesting that pedagogical content knowledge could be improved if the teachers knew more about the subject matter they were teaching (Ayvazo, 2007). Despite this fairly universal conclusion that teachers need more subject matter knowledge there is very little research on subject matter knowledge in physical education. In this presentation I examine the question: What influence does experience with an activity have on one's knowledge of that activity?

Methods

100 undergraduate students enrolled in major's classes and basic instruction classes for soccer and basketball were given a 30-item content knowledge tests (one for each sport) assessing their knowledge of rules and etiquette, technique and tactics, and teaching progressions. Five experts helped refine the content validity of the tests and 10 experts established the face validity. The tests were further refined using small groups of students not participating in the study. Students were blocked into groups according to their history with the sport. Those who had played for more than two years, those who had coached and those who had played recreationally or not at all. Data were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA.

Analysis/Results

Results were significant, The data show that experience showed a small difference on test scores for basketball, but less so for soccer. However the scores obtained for each group were less than 30% of the total score possible for the test.

Conclusions

There are several explanations for these results including the quality of physical education in schools and the nature of extra curricular sporting experiences. Regardless of the explanation, teacher education programs are faced with two dilemmas if these data hold true for other activities. First, teacher education faculty cannot assume that students will enroll in their program with adequate content knowledge from having participated in P-12 education and from having played a sport for several seasons. Second, teacher education programs are for the most part constructed to provide content knowledge using the “learn as you play” model. It is unlikely that this model will produce substantive subject matter knowledge of the kind necessary to teach the subject.