Teacher subject matter competency and its effects on content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge: A comparison of California’s subject-matter programs and the C-SET

This study analyzes the results of ten years’ worth of survey data from newly credentialed teachers in California. The intent was to examine the possibility of a difference between teachers who satisfy the state’s Subject-Matter Competency requirement through coursework or by passing a content-area test. This study focused on three domains of teacher knowledge that have been the focus of teacher competency studies since Lee Shulman first described them in 1986: content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge. Using data from a survey sent to new teachers one year after completion of a teacher-credential program in the California State University, this study examined how new teachers perceive their readiness for classroom service while searching for differences between teachers who satisfy the California Subject-Matter Competency requirement through coursework and those who pass the California Subject Exam for Teachers (C-SET. Statistically significant differences were found between groups in general pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge for some samples, but these differences were found to have no practical significance when effect size was analyzed using Cohen’s d. Practical significance was found in content knowledge between groups in the sample of mathematics teachers and the sample of science teachers.