The Future of Education

            The existing literature on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) suggests that the documented topic-specific science PCK of experienced science teachers can assist in the development of pedagogical content knowledge of pre-service science teachers. This paper presents an effort to understand and record the topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge of a high school science teacher.

            A narrative inquiry was conducted to gain access to the pedagogical content knowledge of Jason, a high school science teacher, who had accumulated two years of experience in teaching high school physics.Oral narrative data was collected through a series of interviews conducted as collegial conversations about his experiences with teaching topics related to force and motion. The “narrative analysis” approach was used to configure a narrative account of Jason from the data in order to illustrate his pedagogical content knowledge of the above topics (Polkinghorne, 1995).

            Jason’s narrative account was evidence of his deep understanding of the topics related to force and motion and a distinctive learning progression that he uses for teaching these topics so that his students can develop a better understanding. The composition of his topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge consisted of nine distinct teacher knowledge aspects identified in the literature on PCK, and each knowledge aspect contained relevant examples and practical solutions to the relevant pedagogical problems. Jason’s pedagogical content knowledge of teaching topics related to force and motion is sourced into his diverse experience in teaching these topics.

References:

Polkinghorne, D. E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 8 (1), 5-23.