THE GENERIC NATURE OF PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE AMONG COLLEGE PROFESSORS

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.