Transformation

This category concerns knowledge-in-action as demonstrated both in planning to teach and in the act of teaching itself. At the heart of this category, is Shulman’s observation that the knowledge base for teaching is distinguished by “ … the capacity of a teacher to transform the content knowledge he or she possesses into forms that are pedagogically powerful” (1987, p. 15). As Shulman indicates, the presentation of ideas to learners entails their re-presentation (our hyphen) in the form of analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations and demonstrations (Shulman, 1986, p. 9). This second category picks out behaviour that is directed towards a pupil (or a group of pupils) which follows from deliberation and judgement. Of particular importance is the trainees’ choice and use of examples presented to pupils to assist their concept formation, language acquisition and to demonstrate procedures