Science Teachers Library

Deepening Teacher Content Knowledge for Teaching: A Review of the Evidence

Abstract

"The Math and Science Partnership Knowledge Management and Dissemination (MSP KMD) project was funded as an MSP Research Evaluation and Technical Assistance effort to support knowledge management within the Math and Science Partnership program and to disseminate information to the broader mathematics and science education community. The overall goal of the KMD project is to synthesize findings from MSP work and integrate them into the larger knowledge base for education reform. In this way, MSPs (both NSF-funded and Department of Education-funded) and the field at large can benefit from MSPs’ research and development efforts.

The KMD project is conducting its work in a few important, carefully selected areas of mathematics and science education research and practice. The project uses a three-stage knowledge management model, created by Nevis, DiBella, and Gould (1995) for workplace settings. The model posits that learning occurs in three identifiable stages: knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, and knowledge utilization.

Deepening teachers’ content knowledge is the first area to be investigated. As part of the knowledge acquisition phase for deepening teacher content knowledge, the project has identified key theoretical perspectives; conducted a literature review; and reviewed MSP documents and interviewed a number of MSP PIs and others to capture practice-based insights. These three sources—theoretical perspectives, research-based findings, and practice-based insights—will be integrated in syntheses that represent the field’s knowledcontribution of the MSP program to the knowledge base."