PCK of Pre-service Science Teachers

1. PCK of Pre-service Science Teachers

2. April A. Nelms, Ed.S.aanelms@crimson.ua.edu University of Alabama College of Education Department of Curriculum & Instruction Secondary Science Education

3. What is PCK? In the late 1980’s, Lee Shulman introduced the educational research arena to a construct he coined as Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). Shulman’s original definition of the construct explains that teachers merge their knowledge of content and pedagogy to represent the knowledge to diverse learners decisively (Shulman, 1987).

4. Purpose This action research study examines how PCK develops over the course of planning and teaching a science lesson.

5. Design Students involved in a universitysciencemethods course voluntarily participated in this study. The science methods course instructor required students to develop science lessons to teach in their clinical classroom placement. The researcher selected to analyze the level of PCK of the first science lesson plan taught by the pre-service science teachers in their assigned science classroom.

6. ResearchQuestions • What level of PCK do pre-service secondary science teachers possess as they prepared their first lesson to be taught in a science classroom? • Does the level of PCK affect pre-service secondary science teachers’ performance in developing an effective science lesson plan for a specific group of pre-service teachers?

7. Methods • The Lesson Preparation Method (Vandervalk and • Broekman, 1999) • Participants developed Learning Cycle Lessons • A rubric was developed and applied to the lessons to • evaluate PCK level based on the premise the PCK is • comprised of several components

8. Results Results indicated that these specific pre-service science teachers were in the developing level. The correlation between level of PCK and ability to create an effective science lesson indicated that participants in the developing level should score between eighty and eighty-nine on a scale of one-hundred as the score on the science lesson plan.

9. Conclusions Pre-service teachers develop their PCK overtime. Strengths and weaknesses were evidenced in students’ lesson preparation. This knowledge will be useful in planning to teach pre-service science teachers in the future.

10. References Abell, S. (2008). Twenty Years Later: Does pedagogical content knowledge remain a useful idea?. International Journal of Science Education, 30(10), 1405-1416. DOI: 10.1080/09500690802187041. Loughran, J.,Gunstone, R., Berry, A., Philippa, M., and Mulhall, P. (2000, April). Science Cases in Action: Developing an Understanding of Science Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge. A paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, New Orleans, LA. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED442630) Retrieved from ERIC database. Pilburn, M., Sawada, D., Falconer, K., Turley, J., Benford, R., Bloom, I. (2000). Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) ACEPT IN-003. Retrieved from http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/AZTEC/RTOP/RTOP_full/  Schwarzer, R., Schmitz, G., & G. Daytner. (1999). Teacher Self Efficacy Survey. Retrieved from http://userpage.fu- berlin.de/~health/teacher_se.htm  Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1-22. Van der Valk, A.E. and H.G. Broekman. (1999). The Lesson Preparation Method: a way of investigation pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. European Journal of Teacher Education, 22(1), 11-22. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ594211) Retrieved from ERIC database.