Strategies for the Teaching of Content Courses in Physical Education Teacher Education

A teacher cannot teach what they do not know. Previous studies have demonstrated that increasing teachers' content knowledge (common content knowledge [CCK] and specialized content knowledge [SCK]) enhances teachers' teaching effectiveness, which in turn results in better student learning. In the limited curricular space available in physical education teacher education (PETE) programs, maximizing the allocated time for developing content knowledge among preservice teachers is crucial. The purpose of this article is to propose strategies for teaching content courses to develop preservice teachers' content knowledge using examples from volleyball. Various pedagogical strategies to develop content knowledge that can be used in classroom settings (e.g., repeated assessment, scaffolding, and modeling in different forms) are introduced. Increasing the amount of peer teaching and teaching of preK-12 students are also effective strategies to promote preservice teachers' learning of content knowledge and its application.