Subject matter pedagogy in university teaching: how lecturers use relations between theory and practice

A central aim of university teaching is to transform students’
conceptual understanding of disciplinary knowledge. In order to
achieve this, lecturers make decisions on subject matter and
teaching approaches. However, there seems to be little
attention for the role of subject matter pedagogy in university
teaching. This study aims to explore a knowledge base of
teaching through lecturers’ accounts of a relation between
subject matter, theory and practice in Child and Education
Studies (CES). Four narratives of the lecturers suggest that
subject matter is central to how a relation between theory and
practice is taught. At the same time, orientation towards
teaching was relevant to teaching subject matter. Furthermore,
the analysis revealed that every lecture runs into their own
limits when teaching theory and practice. The findings suggest
that university pedagogy is informed by specific subjects rather
than the discipline. Implications for teaching and academic
development are discussed.