Teaching Standard 3: “Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge”

The standard

Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge

have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas, foster and maintain pupils’ interest in the subject, and address misunderstandings
demonstrate a critical understanding of developments in the subject and curriculum areas, and promote the value of scholarship
demonstrate an understanding of and take responsibility for promoting high standards of literacy, articulacy and the correct use of standard English, whatever the teacher’s specialist subject
if teaching early reading, demonstrate a clear understanding of systematic synthetic phonics
if teaching early mathematics, demonstrate a clear understanding of appropriate teaching strategies.

The framework

Learn that…

A school’s curriculum enables it to set out its vision for the knowledge, skills and values that its pupils will learn, encompassing the national curriculum within a coherent wider vision for successful learning.
Secure subject knowledge helps teachers to motivate pupils and teach effectively.
Ensuring pupils master foundational concepts and knowledge before moving on is likely to build pupils’ confidence and help them succeed.
Anticipating common misconceptions within particular subjects is also an important aspect of curricular knowledge; working closely with colleagues to develop an understanding of likely misconceptions is valuable.
Explicitly teaching pupils the knowledge and skills they need to succeed within particular subject areas is beneficial.
In order for pupils to think critically, they must have a secure understanding of knowledge within the subject area they are being asked to think critically about.
In all subject areas, pupils learn new ideas by linking those ideas to existing knowledge, organising this knowledge into increasingly complex mental models (or “schemata”); carefully sequencing teaching to facilitate this process is important.
Pupils are likely to struggle to transfer what has been learnt in one discipline to a new or unfamiliar context.
To access the curriculum, early literacy provides fundamental knowledge; reading comprises two elements: word reading and language comprehension; systematic synthetic phonics is the most effective approach for teaching pupils to decode.
Every teacher can improve pupils’ literacy, including by explicitly teaching reading, writing and oral language skills specific to individual disciplines.
Pupils’ positive dispositions and attitudes towards mathematics are associated with positive outcomes on learning.
Pupils’ oral language skills can be supported by teaching new words and how to use and understand words within sentences or longer texts. This can help to address speech and language difficulties, especially for children in their early school years.

Learn how to…

Deliver a carefully sequenced and coherent curriculum, by:

Identifying essential concepts, knowledge, skills and principles of the subject and providing opportunity for all pupils to learn and master these critical components.
Ensuring pupils’ thinking is focused on key ideas within the subject.
Working with experienced colleagues to accumulate and refine a collection of powerful analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations and demonstrations.
Using resources and materials aligned with the school curriculum (e.g. textbooks or shared resources designed by experienced colleagues that carefully sequence content).
Being aware of common misconceptions and discussing with
experienced colleagues how to help pupils master important concepts.

Support pupils to build increasingly complex mental models, by:

Discussing and analysing with expert colleagues the rationale for curriculum choices, the process for arriving at current curriculum choices and how the school’s curriculum materials inform lesson preparation.
Balancing exposition, repetition, practice of critical skills and knowledge.
Revisiting the big ideas of the subject over time and teaching key concepts through a range of examples.
Drawing explicit links between new content and the core concepts and principles in the subject.

Develop fluency, by:

Providing tasks that support pupils to learn key ideas securely (e.g. quizzing pupils so they develop fluency with times tables).
Using retrieval and spaced practice to build automatic recall and application of key knowledge.

Help pupils apply knowledge and skills to other contexts, by:

Ensuring pupils have relevant domain-specific knowledge, especially when being asked to think critically within a subject.
Interleaving concrete and abstract examples, slowly withdrawing concrete examples and drawing attention to the underlying structure of problems.

Develop pupils’ literacy, by:

Demonstrating a clear understanding of systematic synthetic phonics, and the necessary prerequisite knowledge, particularly if teaching early reading and spelling.
Supporting younger pupils, especially those with reading difficulties, to become fluent readers by building automatic and accurate decoding with various texts and repeated reading of texts with modelling and feedback.
Teaching unfamiliar vocabulary explicitly and planning for pupils to be repeatedly exposed to high-utility and high-frequency vocabulary in what is taught.
Modelling strategies that encourage active comprehension by asking questions, making predictions, and summarising when reading.
Promoting reading for pleasure (e.g. by using a range of whole class reading approaches and regularly reading high-quality texts to children).
Teaching, modelling, and requiring high quality oral language, sometimes known as oracy, recognising that spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing (e.g. where appropriate, develop pupils’ responses to questions into full sentences).
Teaching different forms of writing by modelling planning, drafting and editing.
Supporting younger pupils to become fluent writers through explicit teaching and practice of spelling and handwriting, with modelling and feedback, such as addressing both the process and product of letter formation when developing pupils’ handwriting.

The text above is taken from the Teachers’ Standards and the ITTECF Combined Framework. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0 and v3.0.