Your knowledge and beliefs about the purposes and goals for teaching in your content area form the backbone for your orientation to teaching the content. Although instructors have deep content knowledge in their fields, it isn’t certain that they’ve had the opportunity to develop the skills to teach this content to students who have far less background knowledge. Most likely your students will have an incomplete schema (mental map) to organize the content you are teaching. Helping your students to develop more complete schemas is crucial to helping them to effectively integrate and use new content knowledge.

As you plan your semester, consider how learning outcomes and other requirements mandated by accrediting or professional societies and your department may impact your course content. In particular, consider talking to others in your department to discuss how your course(s) fit into the sequence of other courses. The term vertical alignment refers to a thoughtful plan examining what is taught in a sequence and when, and how the fundamental knowledge for one semester supports the learning in future semesters. For more information on this aspect see the Teaching Effectiveness Framework domain Curriculum/Curricular Alignment.

Consider the contemporary issues in your field and how you might use these issues to motivate students’ learning. The relevance and connection of your content to the lives of all of your students will help determine students’ motivation. You can refer to the Teaching Effectiveness domains of Motivation and Inclusive Pedagogy to learn more about how to motivate students and help them recognize how your content relates to issues of interest to them.

• Determine breadth and depth of content necessary for course level: align with pre-, co-, and subsequent courses.
• Present information in a sequence that makes sense to a (new, intermediate, advanced) learner.
• Be aware of how your course sits within a sequence and the knowledge and skills students bring to your course.
• Shape examples, representations, or analogies related to your content to fit the needs and level of your students.
• Know the most common misconceptions students hold related to your content.
• Help your students develop mental schema for your content.
• Be flexible in adapting or changing your examples as students grapple with the topic and pose questions.
• Be aware of the contributions of scholars in your field who represent diversity through demographics, identity, and thought and build those into your course.