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  • Support for early career teachers
  • Education Development Trust
  • Year 2: Second half-term: revisiting the importance of subject and curriculum knowledge

    • Video introduction

    • Watch the video.
    • The video outlines what you will cover in this Block.
    Video transcript

    As you established in Block 4, subject knowledge is of critical importance. 

    This Block will focus on key aspects of your practice to support you in curriculum design and delivery. In particular, we will focus on how you can use your improved understanding of how the subject or subjects you teach ‘work’ to deepen and strengthen your pupils’ subject knowledge. You will build on your learning from Block 2 and Block 4 around how knowledge is constructed and developed and the different strategies you can use to support your pupils to become more successful learners.

    Knowledge is built by linking new ideas to existing knowledge. We know that pupils are likely to forget what they have learnt without specific strategies to support them in transferring knowledge to their long-term memory, as covered in Block 2 and 8. We will look at tasks that support pupils to learn key ideas securely, and that build automatic recall of key knowledge through retrieval and spaced practice. In this way you can help pupils apply knowledge and skills to other contexts, and to think critically, by drawing attention to the underlying structure of problems and how concrete examples can lead to abstract ones. 

    In the self-directed study materials, we will look specifically at how to help pupils build more complex mental models. You can support your pupils to do this by drawing explicit links between new content and the core concepts and principles in the subjects you teach. This will allow pupils to pin new knowledge to the foundations of the subject you are teaching; creating a logical system in which ideas, knowledge and skills are linked rather than stand-alone ‘facts’, easily forgotten. 

    As you established in Block 4, developing excellent subject and curriculum knowledge is a process that takes time. You will probably feel more confident now than you did at this point last year. However, continuing to work with more experienced colleagues who can offer you support, advice and practical strategies is an important part of your development as a teacher. This Block encourages you to do this in relation to longer-term planning.