Powerful pedagogical knowledge: Strengthening professional learning through subject knowledge and cognitive science
Written by: Christopher Tay
9 min read
CHRISTOPHER TAY, VISITING LECTURER IN ITE, UNIVERSITY OF CHESTER, UK
Exploring the direction of emerging government policy on curriculum, this article examines the challenges for teaching presented by the intentions set out in the interim report from the Curriculum and Assessment Review (DfE, 2025a), suggesting that the report’s affirmation of ‘powerful knowledge’ (PK) as a guiding curriculum principle requires an equally ‘powerful pedagogical knowledge’ (PPK) if those intentions are to be realised in the classroom.
The new ‘knowledge-rich’
The interim report reaffirms the commitment to a knowledge-rich National Curriculum, challenging schools to ‘extend… the focus on “powerful knowledge”’ in pursuit of the ‘skills and capabilities required for life and work’ (DfE, 2025b, p. 9). This is outlined in the Review’s conceptual position paper, which defines knowledge in the now-familiar PK terms of substantive knowledge – the know that – and disciplinary
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