New Perspectives in Science Education
The Development of Teachers’ PCK on a Physics Topic through a STEM Training Program
Iva Martins, Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal)
Mónica Baptista, Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal)
Teresa Conceição, Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal)
Abstract
In order to contradict the general tendency that indicates that students find Physics subjects difficult and non-stimulating [1], the STEM approach has been suggested as a way to engage students in STEM-related areas. STEM based education underlies the idea that real-world problem solving requires the articulation of knowledge from various disciplines, namely Physics, that allow students to develop several essential competencies [2]. However, some studies describe that teachers have difficulties in using a STEM approach in their classes [3]. Therefore, it is important to stimulate teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) [4] in order to be able to articulate the knowledge of different subjects in Physics and to transform a curriculum topic in an engaging, relevant and accessible theme to students. In this work we will describe the effects of a STEM teaching training program in 12th grade teachers’ PCK about the gravitational pendulum. The participants in this study were teachers from several school clusters from different regions of Portugal.
Keywords: STEM Education, Teachers’ PCK, Physics Education.
References:
[1] Sjøberg, S., & Schreiner, C. (2010). The ROSE Project. An Overview and Key Findings. University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, 2010
[2] Lamb, R., Akmal, T., & Petrie, K. (2015). Development of a cognition-priming model describing learning in a STEM classroom. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 52, pp. 410–437.
[3] Wang, H.H.; Moore, T. J.; Roehrig, G. H.; & Park, M.S. (2011). STEM Integration: Teacher Perceptions and Practice, Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER), 1(2), Article 2.
[4] Carlson, J., & Daehler, K. (2019). The refined consensus model of pedagogical content knowledge in Science Education. In A. Hume, R. Cooper,& A. Borowski (Eds), Repositioning Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teachers’ Knowledge for Teaching Science, pp. 77-92. Singapore. Springer.
