Professional vs. Subject Knowledge

The debate in education over whether professional knowledge or subject knowledge is most critical to teaching a subject can provoke a lot of discussion and valuable arguments.  Some will argue that if you are a good teacher, with good strategies, and possess a knowledge of how to teach, you will be able to teach any grade, any subject.  Others oppose this, stating that it is more important to have a knowlege of the subject you are going to be teaching to students.  I believe there is a lot of credibility to both of these arguments, and it is not possible to choose only one or the other.  Both professional and subject knowlege must be apparent in order for a teacher to do a good job.

Knowing how to teach is an asset to becoming a good teacher, for in teaching you must be able to rephrase directions and instructions many different ways in order to pass along a skill to a learner.  Professional knowledge is very important, but a bit of subject knowledge must also be evident.  Someone does not have to be a master before they can pass along their talents, but they must have basic skills if they wish to teach others. 

Using myself as an example, I would be a very poor grade 12 physics teacher.  I have been trained to teach, but have no background in physics.  I would not know enough basics to teach this subject unless I was given time to prepare and learn the course prior to stepping in the classroom.  Thus being said, I would do well as a grade 12 english teacher, for I majored in english in my undergraduate degree.  In both situations I have the same professional knowledge, but having that little bit of subject knowledge helps make a good teacher.

If teachers solely have a subject knowledge with little professional knowledge, they can often only teach to a small percentage of the classroom.  This is because they do not possess the strategies to present the information to a variety of learners.  I had this experience in highschool, where I was in a course with a brilliant teacher.  Mathematics had always come easily to him, so he had no trouble assisting those who averaged in the 90's every test.  These students could easily understand his thinking.  He ran into trouble with those students who needed the information to be explained in an alternate form.  This caused many students to become rather frustrated, as well as the teacher, for they could not communicate with each other.  The teacher in this case possessed a strong subject knowledge, but his professional knowledge was not quite as strong.

Professional knowledge is highly important to being a teacher, but that little bit of subject knowledge, or the time to develop that knowledge, must also be evident.  Teachers will have to work on this balance, so that they become capable of helping each student learn as best as they can.