Teaching Theory in Practice: Rethinking What It Means to Teach
Teaching is often described as the act of sharing knowledge. But what does it really mean to teach well?Why should excellent teaching not remain a “solitary endeavor”? And how do professional fields such as medicine, law, and education help students develop not only knowledge, but also professional ways of thinking and acting? These questions sit at the heart of the work of Lee S. Shulman, one of the most influential educational thinkers in contemporary teaching and learning research.
As Professor Emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and former president of the American Educational Research Association, Shulman has profoundly shaped how educators understand teacher knowledge, teaching communities, and professional education.
Through his work, Shulman reminds us that teaching is more than delivering knowledge. It involves translating knowledge for students, learning from colleagues, and helping students develop the ways of thinking valued in a discipline.
From “Knowing the Subject” to “Knowing How to Teach It”
In the 1980s, teacher education often assumed that strong subject knowledge naturally led to effective teaching. Shulman challenged this assumption.
In his 1986 landmark article, Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching, Shulman argued that teacher knowledge includes more than content expertise. He distinguished among three forms of teacher knowledge: subject matter content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and curricular knowledge. Among these, PCK became especially influential because it explains how teachers transform disciplinary knowledge into forms students can understand.
Making Teaching Public: From Pedagogical Solitude to SoTL
After examining what individual teachers need to know, Shulman turned to another important question: If teaching remains private and isolated, how can it improve?
For a long time, especially in higher education, teaching often took place behind closed classroom doors. Instructors developed assignments, tried strategies, solved problems, and reflected on student learning largely on their own. Shulman referred to this condition as “Pedagogical Solitude.”
Shulman strongly advocated for teaching to become community property. In this view, teaching should be made visible, documented, discussed, evaluated, and improved through collective inquiry. His argument helped shape the development of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), which treats teaching as a form of scholarly inquiry. For faculty development, this idea remains especially important. It reminds us that excellent teaching should not depend only on individual effort. It grows through conversation, evidence, peer exchange, and shared reflection.
How Professional Education Shapes Professional Thinking
One of Shulman’s later contributions was the idea of signature pedagogies. He argued that professional education shapes students not only through curriculum content, but also through the recurring teaching practices that help students learn how people in a profession think, act, and make judgments.
For example:
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Clinical rounds in medical education
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Case-method discussions in legal education
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Classroom practicum experiences in teacher education
These are not simply teaching formats. They are ways of helping students enter a professional way of thinking. In other words, signature pedagogies do not simply prepare students to perform professional tasks; they help students begin to think like members of a profession.
For instructors, this idea raises an important question: What are the signature learning experiences in our own disciplines?
Shulman’s Larger Vision of Teaching
Looking across Shulman’s academic contributions, we can see a layered framework for understanding teaching.
PCK addressed the question:
What kind of knowledge does an excellent instructor need?
SoTL explored:
How can teaching move from isolated practice to collective growth?
And Signature Pedagogies examined:
How does professional education cultivate authentic professionals?
Together, these ideas show how Shulman understood teaching at multiple levels: the individual teacher, the teaching community, and professional education as a whole
For today’s educators, Shulman’s work remains highly relevant. In an era of rapid technological change, including AI-supported teaching and learning, his theories remind us that effective teaching still depends on thoughtful transformation of knowledge, evidence-based reflection, and the cultivation of professional judgment.
Teaching is not only about what we know. It is about how we help others understand, how we learn from one another, and how we prepare students to think and act with purpose in their fields.
References:
Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching.
Shulman, L. S. (1993). Teaching as community property: Putting an end to pedagogical solitude.
Shulman, L. S. (2005). Signature pedagogies in the professions.