Pedagogy is the art of teaching/education.

I’ve noticed that lots of new teachers have plenty of content knowledge. It’s the pedagogy that’s the hard part. Teacher programs in college, even student teaching, is nothing like the real deal. Most pedagogy is learned through experience.

Pedagogical knowledge is knowing how to impart that information to your students in the most effective method.

Content is easy — the quadratic equation, the major themes in Hamlet, the geological periods of the Earth, how the two-party system developed in America.

The art of teaching lies in pedagogy. How do you make certain that every single child in your room learns what you are trying to teach? How do you re-explain your subject for the child who has the attention span of a gnat or for the child who was still trying to figure out why the bus was two minutes late this morning? What about the child who learns kinesthetically who is sitting next to the child with a photographic memory? How do you keep both of them engaged while trying to make certain they understand the pitfalls of the Articles of Confederation?

That’s pedagogy. That’s what teachers need to study — every single day.

pedagogy: how to teach

So as a 2nd grade teacher I need to know how phonics works, how to use reading strategies such as predicting, and how to subtract two digit numbers with regrouping. That is content knowledge.

The pedogogy is how I teach that content. It’s my teaching strategies. So I might use direct instruction, cooperative learning, or guided reading. It also refers to how I organize my lesson plans, how I introduce vocabulary, and how I introduce a new math concept, among other things.

For a simple, step-by-step program that can help your child learn to read visit this site: http://readingprogram.toptips.org

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