Stories of Teaching Force and Motion: A Narrative Inquiry into Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Science Teachers
Date
2015-08-26
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Abstract
Since the concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) was introduced in the 1980s, many researchers have tried to elaborate this concept. This project establishes that understanding topic-specific science PCK diverges from understanding the broader PCK construct. It provides a conceptual framework that can be used to represent both general PCK and topic-specific science PCK. The research demonstrates how this framework can serve as a heuristic to consider science teachers’ PCK. The research explored how four experienced secondary school science teachers describe their experiences of conceptualizing and teaching the topics, force and motion. The aim was to access teachers’ thinking about using content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge to teach science content. Two narrative methodologies suggested by Polkinghorne were employed: narrative analysis and analysis of narratives. Science teachers’ descriptions were developed into (a) narrative configurations that portray their PCK—stories of teaching force and motion, and (b) PCK tools—teaching, learning and assessment tools that can be used to engage pre-service science teachers to help them develop their science PCK. Participant teachers’ PCK was organized using ten teacher knowledge components: (i) knowledge of content, (ii) knowledge of student learning, (iii) knowledge of instructional strategies, (iv) knowledge of teaching resources, (v) knowledge of technology, (vi) knowledge of science curriculum, (vii) knowledge of goals, (viii) knowledge of teaching contexts, (ix) knowledge of assessment, and (x) knowledge of student diversity. Each PCK component further contains knowledge elements, which are narrative fragments—events and incidents described by participants about teaching a specific science topic, pointing to the narrative nature of PCK. Each teachers’ PCK represents their professional and practical knowledge of teaching science. Participants’ knowledge can be further considered using a four-level continuum from general to topic-specific science PCK. This shows that content knowledge understanding is integrated with the other teacher knowledge categories.
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Education--Curriculum and Instruction
Citation
Azam, S. (2015). Stories of Teaching Force and Motion: A Narrative Inquiry into Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Science Teachers (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27884