SUBJECT EXPERTISE AND TEACHERS KNOWLEDGE

The purpose of the study was to ascertain the influence of subject mat ter expertise on teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. Data were co llected through multiple, extended interviews with 10 teachers with ex pertise in at least 1 subject area in physical education. Each teacher was interviewed 4 times for approximately 1 hour, focusing on the tea cher's familiarity with 2 content areas (1 expert and 1 nonexpert) and their experiences teaching the subjects, Data were analyzed using the constant comparative technique. The findings were presented nifh refe rence to Grossman's (1990) definition of pedagogical content knowledge . Subject experts identified their largest pedagogical problem as stud ent motivation, while nonexperts believed finding appropriate activiti es was their greatest challenge. Subject experts were more comfortable and enthusiastic about pedagogical duties and could accommodate a gre ater range of abilities. The experts and nonexperts revealed no differ ences in curricular selection, perceptions of students' understanding of the subject, or evaluation criteria.