I’ve had a few conversations recently about developing subject knowledge.
For my own part, I’m still developing my subject knowledge, it’s a never-ending piece of work and I enjoy it! Here are some of the things I’ve found helpful:
1 Talking to others doing the same work as me, either in person or online. The subject communities on Twitter/X for example are great sources of information and support. I’ve compiled lists of the subject on my X, link here
2 Subject associations are really good value and many offer free resources.
3 The five steps for subjects, where we provide the subject chapters from the Huh series, plus links to the subject networks on Myatt & Co (£/free trial)
4 The Ofsted curriculum reviews, which highlight the strengths and areas for development.
5 Using high quality resources is also a way of developing subject knowledge. For example, if I’m teaching about evolution in Year 6 and I don’t have a background in science, I could use ‘On the Origin of Species’ by Savina Radeva. This means my own subject knowledge grows. I’m using the book to teach my pupils and I’m also getting better at the subject myself!
I reckon that using high quality texts and materials are an underestimated element of professional development.
We’ve developed The Teachers’ Collection to support this work by linking units from the national curriculum programmes of study to great books. And to make it even easier, we’ve written draft planning units and knowledge organisers. You can find the evolution materials here (free sample).
Until next time
Mary
I am retired now and my subject eas Physics but one of the most useful things I did was talking to teachers whose subjects did not automatically align with STEM. Eg. Art - using Van Gogh Starry Night picture to discuss the Solar System. Their insights into how to present topics to say a set of middle ability yr9's helped make the lessons more fun