The generic nature of pedagogical content knowledge among college professors

There is a growing body of research on teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), yet most of it has focused on subject-matter-bounded (specific) PCK and involves teachers in the general classroom (elementary and secondary grades). This study explorers the kinds of interpretative frameworks that university professors use in constructing and implementing PCK. The basic purpose of this study was to better understand the “generic” nature of PCK among exceptional university-level teachers. It analyzes generic PCK in professors across several fields (biology, business, education, kinesiology, music, nursing, special education, and speech communication). Data were obtained from phenomenological interviews with 10 university professors, all of them experienced teachers and recognized by their peers and administrators as eminent. The results emerged from qualitative analysis of the data, and indicate that these professors not only construct and use generic PCK in very similar ways but also that they apply generic PCK in ways that reflect Rubin's (1989) notion of “pedagogical intelligence” and Porter and Brophy's (1988) insights on good teaching. Five generic PCK components emerged: knowledge about (a) the subject matter, (b) the students, (c) numerous instructional strategies, (d) the teaching context, and (e) one's teaching purposes. In addition, the results problematize the traditional “scholar-teacher” dichotomy in higher education.