What Every Teacher Should Know about It

t is certain that all teachers must possess knowledge. The question, however, is: „What kinds of knowledge every teacher aspiring to be successful in his or her job should have?― The purpose of this paper is to provide, if not definitive, than at least an elucidating answer to this question. The paper deals with three kinds of knowledge all teachers should possess: content or subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Content knowledge refers to the teacher‘s knowledge of the subject matter he/she teaches, and increases the teacher‘s own confidence, which directly influences the level of confidence the students‘ have for the teacher. Pedagogical knowledge, on the other hand, is not directly associated with the subject matter, but can still have an immense impact on the final results of the learning process. It is concerned with improving the relationship between the students and the teacher by helping the teacher recognize a variety of different situations which can appear in the classroom and equipping the teacher with appropriate techniques which enable him/her to respond appropriately to each of those situations. The third kind of knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, unites the previous two, and helps the teacher find the methodologically most appropriate ways to present the given content. As elaborated in the paper, taken together, these three kinds of knowledge improve rapport between the students and the teacher and maximize student achievement, which is the ultimate goal of any learning process