Subject Content Knowledge
Domain 1 - Subject Content Knowledge. This domain checks that you can operate confidently inside your own subject at the level you teach and one step above it: precise terminology, correct units and notation, standard representations, the logic behind methods, and the ability to explain why a rule works rather than only how to apply it.
What is actually assessed
- Curriculum boundaries. You must know the mandatory outcomes fixed by the state educational standard for your grade and which skills are only preparatory for the next stage.
- Multiple representations. Moving between verbal, symbolic, graphical, tabular and pictorial forms of the same idea.
- Error logic. Naming the exact misconception behind a wrong answer instead of labelling it careless.
Worked example
A pupil says: "At the top of its flight the ball stops, so its velocity is zero and its acceleration is zero too." How should a physics teacher answer? The first clause is correct - the vertical velocity is momentarily zero. The inference is wrong. Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity, not velocity itself; near the ground it stays about 9.8 m/s² downwards for the whole flight, including the highest point. A strong answer separates the two quantities, points to the slope of the v–t graph, which never becomes zero, and predicts the next observation: the ball begins to fall. Refusing the premise ("the ball never stops") or answering only "wrong" leaves the misconception intact.
Traps that cost marks
- Answering only at pupil level, without the deeper justification the exam asks for.
- Confusing a definition with an example of it.
- Substituting numbers correctly while misnaming the quantity or its unit.
- Terminology drift: using a term differently from the state standard or the textbook translation.