Knowledge and Practices Needed for Teaching Algebra

Teaching matters, but understanding the nature of the knowledge that highly effective mathematics teachers possess has historically been a difficult task for researchers. Important progress in this area was made with Shulman's (1986) landmark paper titled, "Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching." In this paper, Shulman coined the term pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and hypothesized that effective teachers possess different types of knowledge than individuals who use mathematics as part of their daily work.