title: Conceptualising GP teachers' knowledge: a pedagogical content knowledge perspective.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Most teacher development initiatives focus on enhancing knowledge of teaching (pedagogy), whilst largely ignoring other important features of teacher knowledge such as subject matter knowledge and awareness of the learning context. Furthermore, teachers' ability to learn  from faculty development interventions is limited by their existing (often implicit) pedagogical knowledge and beliefs. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) represents a model of teacher knowledge incorporating what they know about subject matter, pedagogy and context. PCK can be used to explore  teachers' prior knowledge and to structure faculty development programmes so that they take account of a broader range of teachers' knowledge. We set out to examine the application of a PCK model in a general practice education setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is part of a larger study that  employed a mixed method approach (concept mapping, phenomenological interviews and video-stimulated recall) to explore features of GP teachers' subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and knowledge of the learning environment in the context of a general practice tutorial.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This paper presents data on GP teachers' pedagogical and context knowledge. There was considerable overlap between different GP teachers' knowledge and beliefs about learners and the clinical learning environment (i.e. knowledge of context). The teachers' beliefs about learners were largely  based on assumptions derived from their own student experiences. There were stark differences, however, between teachers in terms of pedagogical knowledge, particularly in terms of their teaching orientations (i.e. transmission or facilitation orientation) and this was manifest in their teaching  behaviours.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PCK represents a useful model for conceptualising clinical teacher prior knowledge in three domains, namely subject matter, learning context and pedagogy. It can and should be used as a simple guiding framework by faculty developers to inform the design and delivery  of their faculty development programmes.
authors: NUI, Galway, Republic of Ireland. cantillon@nuigalway.ie
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Cantillon
authors: Willem
authors: W
authors: de Grave
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D007858:Learning; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013192:Staff Development / Q000458:organization & administration