Assessing Future Elementary Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in a Physics Class Documents

Main Document

Assessing Future Elementary Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in a Physics Class 

written by Claudia Fracchiolla and N. Sanjay Rebello

The nature of teacher's pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has often been described as a personal construct that develops over years of practice. However, research has shown that some aspects of PCK can be developed during the preparation of pre-service teachers. A common thread among these aspects of PCK is the importance of kids' prior knowledge. At Kansas State University, a physics class was reformed to infuse PCK into the learning experience of future elementary teachers. As part of the class, students were required to develop a lesson plan that incorporated their understanding of kids' ideas about physics and how to address those ideas. To assess students' PCK, we searched for instances where kids' prior knowledge were present and how students incorporated these ideas into their lesson plan. We present the results of our study and implications for instruction.

Last Modified April 24, 2015

This file is included in the full-text index.