Research project

Science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge

How do science teachers develop their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)? How can PCK development be facilitated in pre-service and experienced teachers?

Duration: 0
Funding: Australian Research Council Large Grants (1999 – 2004); (2006-2010)

This research is concerned with how to capture, document and portray PCK in a way that is valid and useful from a teacher’s point of view. In the initial stages of our program (1999-2002) we worked with ‘expert’ high school science teachers (interview, classroom observation) to uncover details about the main ideas/concepts in teaching a particular content area and how teachers supported their students to understand these ideas.

Methodological tools

From this, we developed CoRes (Content Representations) and PaP-eRs (Pedagogical and Professional-experience Repertoires), both as methodological tools for uncovering teachers’ PCK and as a means of representing it. A CoRe is structured around questions related to elements of Shulman’s (1986) knowledge base, in particular, knowledge of the main content ideas associated with a specific topic, teaching procedures and purposes, and knowledge about students’ thinking. PaP-eRs are short narratives based on teachers’ accounts of teaching a specific topic and are intended to make explicit teachers’ pedagogical reasoning, that is, the thinking and actions of a capable teacher in teaching a specific aspect of the content.

Stimulating PCK development

In the next phase of our research we developed, tested and refined a set of CoRes and PaP-eRs around a series of commonly taught Australian high school science topics. We worked with teachers/teacher educators, using our framework for individual and collective interviews. The collective work was published (See Loughran, Berry & Mulhall, 2006), and is being subsequently used in the current phase of our research as a tool for stimulating science teachers’ (inservice, pre-service) PCK development.

Other branches of research related to our work have been developed by researchers internationally, in efforts to stimulate PCK development in pre-service teachers (Nilsson, 2008; Hume, 2011) and to capture PCK of tertiary educators (Rollnick 2011, Garritiz et al, 2010).

Books

Berry, A., Friedrichsen, P., & Loughran, J. (Eds) Re-examining Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Education, London: Routledge Press (accepted).

Loughran, J.J., Berry, A.K., Mulhall, P., 2012, Understanding and Developing Science Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Sense Publishers, The Netherlands.

Loughran, J.J., Berry, A.K., Mulhall, P.J., 2006, Understanding and Developing Science Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam The Netherlands.

Book chapters

Cooper, R; Loughran, J & Berry, A. (accepted). Science teachers’ PCK: Understanding sophisticated practice. In, Berry, A., Friedrichsen, P., & Loughran, J. (Eds) Re-examining Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Education, London: Routledge Press

Friedrichsen, P. & Berry, A. (accepted) PCK Learning Progressions: Promises and Challenges. In, Berry, A., Friedrichsen, P., & Loughran, J. (Eds) Re-examining Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Education, London: Routledge Press

Loughran, J.J., Berry, A.K., Mulhall, P.J., 2007, Pedagogical content knowledge: What does it mean to science teachers?, in Contributions from Science Education Research, eds Roser Pinto, Digna Couso, Springer, The Netherlands, pp. 93-105.

Berry, A.K., Loughran, J.J., Mulhall, P.J., 2007, Values associated with representing science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, in The Re-Emergence of Values in Science Education, eds Deborah Corrigan, Justin Dillon and Richard Gunstone, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, pp. 149-163.

Journal articles

Van Driel, J.H., & Berry, A. (2012). Professional development of teachers focusing on pedagogical content knowledge. Educational Researcher. 41, 26-28.

Hume, A & Berry, A. (2013). "Enhancing the practicum experience for pre-service chemistry teachers through collaborative CoRe design with mentor teachers" Research in Science Education. 43(5), 2107-2136.

Hume, A., & Berry, A. (2010). Constructing CoRes – a strategy for building PCK in pre-service science teacher education. Research in Science Education, Published online March 26, 2010. doi: 10.1007/s11165-010-9168-3.

Berry, A.K., Loughran, J.J., vanDriel, J.H. (eds), 2008, International Journal of Science Education Special Issue: Developments and Challenges in Researching Science Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge: An international perspective, Routledge, United Kingdom.

Berry, A.K., Loughran, J.J., van Driel, J.H., 2008, Editorial. Revisiting the roots of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, in Special Issue: Developments and Challenges in Researching Science Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge: An international perspective, eds Amanda Berry, John Loughran and Jan H. van Driel, Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 1271-1279.

John Loughran, Rebecca Cooper Monash University
Anne Hume, Waikato University, New Zealand
Pat Friedrichsen, University of Missouri, USA