Jm. Fernandezbalboa et J. Stiehl, THE GENERIC NATURE OF PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE AMONG COLLEGE PROFESSORS, Teaching and teacher education, 11(3), 1995, pp. 293-306
There is a growing body of research on teachers' pedagogical content k
nowledge (PCK), yet most of it has focused on subject-matter-bounded (
specific) PCK and involves teachers in the general classroom (elementa
ry and secondary grades). This study explores the kinds of interpretat
ive frameworks that university professors use in constructing and impl
ementing PCK. The basic purpose of this study was to better understand
the ''generic'' nature of PCK among exceptional university-level teac
hers. It analyzes generic PCK in professors across several fields (bio
logy, business, education, kinesiology, music, nursing, special educat
ion, and speech communication). Data were obtained from phenomenologic
al interviews with 10 university professors, all of them experienced t
eachers and recognized by their peers and administrators as eminent. T
he results emerged from qualitative analysis of the data, and indicate
that these professors not only construct and use generic PCK in very
similar ways but also that they apply generic PCK in ways that reflect
Rubin's (1989) notion of ''pedagogical intelligence'' and Porter and
Brophy's (1988) insights on good teaching. Five generic PCK components
emerged: knowledge about (a) the subject matter, (b) the students, (c
) numerous instructional strategies, (d) the teaching context, and (e)
one's teaching purposes. In addition, the results problematize the tr
aditional ''scholar-teacher'' dichotomy in higher education.