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Content Knowledge in Standard-Based Instruction

Nicholas Kowalski

Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 495 Field Experience ePortfolio, Fall 2018

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Introduction

Content knowledge in standards-based instruction is vital in this era of education

that we strive to teach in. While standardized tests must never be the sole focus of

education, it’s without a doubt a vital tool when it comes to understanding how well

students’ content knowledge base is founded. Standards play a crucial role in education,

acting as guidelines for both educators and the educated, pointing out the most important

understanding that are meant to be drawn from the content and the most useful skills that

are, likewise, expected to be mastered. Therefore it is essential for the teacher to be able

to display a high level of content knowledge in their subject, as well as across other

subjects. This allows for the teacher to be able to better enrich the learning experience

and lessons of the students, allowing them to understand the basic understandings

through the important details.

Rationale

The first artifact is an award of excellence in Social studies content knowledge

from the Educational Testing Service. The reason why I chose this is because it shows

that I have a broad and fairly detailed knowledge base of social studies. It should be

noted that this is not limited to simply history, but economics, geography, psychology,

and civics as well. This is important to show because it shows that I am able to back up

the basic understandings of the Virginia Standards of Learning with further details as

well as information from other social studies content areas, in order to further enrich and

deeper the learning experience of students.

The second artifact is a lesson plan as well the corresponding PowerPoint

revolving around the end of reconstruction and the continuing effects of that this era had
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on the nation (the South in particular). The lesson starts out with students using their

historical thinking skills to analyze a speech from this period. This speech, entitled “I

Shall Not Beg fro my Rights,” was brought to my attention by my cooperating teacher as

a potential resource, and showcases how African-Americans made tremendous leaps in

their civil rights during reconstruction, but as the era came to end they quickly lost them.

I selected this artifact because it covers not only important topics in history (Jim

Crow Laws, Election of 1876), but because it asks students to critically examine the way

in which our political system was working at the time. It challenges students to examine

the actions of the government and how those actions effected groups of people (namely

African-Americans) and then answer the question of whether or not the government was

being just or if it was even following its own laws (as laid out in the 14th and 15th

amendments). This lesson is a history lesson, most definitely but it also asks students to

challenge their hitherto pristine view of the American government and the constitution as

inherently good entities. This lesson is a perfect example of how content knowledge can

enrich a student’s understanding of not only the standards that they have to learn, but also

the real working world around them.

Reflection

Content Knowledge is the basis for which all other higher-level learning must be

built upon. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy on can only reach higher-level thinking

activates such as evaluating and critiquing by first remembering and understanding the

information (Iowa State University, 2018). For example using the “End of

Reconstruction” lesson, I ask the students to critique the compromise of 1877 and state

whether they believe it was politically corrupt or whether they believe it seems perfectly
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legal. In order to do this one must first know what happened during the election of 1876,

how it was resolved, how it’s resoultion lead to the end of the reconstruction era as well

as how the electoral college system works. Once they know this they can then use their

own beliefs about the values of the United States to come to a conclusion about the

ethical quality of the comprimise of 1877. Those that disagreed with it, were able to

criticize the compromise based on their understandings of the constitution and their

personal beliefs on the values of the nation.

I have since learned that content knowledge not only enriches the learning

experience but can also help to enrich the learning. Research shows that minority students

can actually better cope with sterotype risk by being more democratically educated in

hisotry and social studies (Heafner & Fitchett, 2018, p. 13). Specialized content

knowledge can also better help to enrich a student’s learning experience. Students love

learning details and understanding how concepts work, content knowledge of the

instructor can help students to not only better understand concepts but can also help them

to recreate those concepts by apply them to something relevent to them (Chan & Yung,

2018, p. 242).
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References

Chan, K. K., & Yung, B. H. (2018). Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge for

Teaching a New Topic: More Than Teaching Experience and Subject Matter

Knowledge. Research in Science Education , 48 (2), 233-265.

Heafner, T., & Fitchett, P. (2018). US history content knowledge and associated effects

of race, gender, wealth, and urbanity: Item Response Theory (IRT) modeling of

NAEP-USH achievement. Journal of Social Studies Research , 42 (1), 11-25.

Iowa State University. (2018). Rivised Bloom's Taxonomy. Retrieved September 28,

2018, from Iowa State University: http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/effective-

teaching-practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy