Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction / Jacqueline D. Spears / There is a growing concern that the number of students graduating with a STEM major in the U.S. is insufficient to fill the growing demand in STEM careers.  In order to fulfill that demand, it is important to increase student retention in STEM majors and also to attract more students to pursue careers in those areas.  Previous research has indicated that children start losing interest in science at the elementary level because science is taught with a focus on learning vocabulary and ideas rather than learning through inquiry-based techniques.  A factor that affects the quality of science education at the elementary level is the preparation of elementary teachers. Many elementary teachers feel unprepared to teach science because they lack adequate content knowledge as well as the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching the subject.  Previous studies of teacher preparation in science identified some areas with which pre-service teachers need assistance.  One of these areas is understanding children’s ideas of science. To address that issue, this dissertation investigates whether the use of an instructional approach that teaches physics phenomena along with an understanding of how children think about the physical phenomena promotes changes in students’ knowledge of children’s ideas and use of those ideas in instructional and assessment strategies.  Results indicated that students who were explicitly exposed to knowledge of children’s ideas more often incorporated those ideas into their own microteaching and demonstrated higher levels of sophistication of knowledge of children’s ideas, instructional strategies, and assessment strategies that incorporated those ideas.  This research explores an instructional model for blending physics content and pedagogical content knowledge.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in partial fulfilment of the award of Master of Science (M.Sc) in Science Education. 6 November 2017. / The gap between theory and practice in education remains a persistent problem identified by some researchers as today’s “Achilles heel of teacher education”. The experience in science education is no different. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has emerged as a theoretical construct that offers science education practitioners a framework to bridge the theory-practice divide because of its ability to transform content knowledge. However, little is known about how the complexity of classroom practice influences PCK acquired by pre-service teachers from structured courses. The purpose of this study was to illuminate pre-service teachers’ PCK as it develops from a point of reasoning about teaching a specific topic into classroom delivery. This study was performed as a qualitative case study of 23 final year pre-service science teachers. It was located in a methodology class that had a specific objective to develop PCK in core topics of science. The students were exposed to an explict intervention on developing PCK in teaching stochiometry then placed in various High Schools around Johannesburg during teaching experience. Data collected was largely during their placement in schools. It consisted of qualitative data such as lesson plans, audio recordings of classroom teaching and self - analysis reports submitted after the teaching experience. Analysis was based on a qualitative in-depth method for identification of evidence of teaching segments illustrating pedagogical transformation. These are segments where there is evidence of two or more topic specific components of PCK defined as Topic Specific Content Knowledge (TSPCK). These were called TSPCK episodes. The TSPCK episodes identified in lessons plans and in recorded lessons were analysed for identificaton of components present and the nature of interactions. These were turned into pictorial TSPCK MAPS. The analysis of pre-service teachers’ views on TSPCK were analysed through a combination of open statements and a science teacher belief tool. The findings indicated that TSPCK episodes identified in lessons plans experience an authentic expansion, blossoming into a cluster of episodes which still carried out the original intention. In some cases the intention could be seen through a similar TSPCK episode in some cases the component sequence and identity had changed. Furthermore, pre-service teachers showed positive awareness of their own level of teacher development and credited their development to the TSPCK framework. Recommendations in this report include promotion of the implementation of the TSPCK framework in Initial Teacher Education, particularly in the methodology courses with reference to classroom complexity. / LG2018

Malawian physical science teachers (PSTs) perceive nuclear physics to be the most difficult physics topic. This study investigated: reasons PSTs would give for this perception, teaching strategies that some PSTs would use to address learning difficulties in nuclear physics, reasons the teachers would give for using certain strategies and nature of the PSTs’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in nuclear physics. Assumptions of the interpretivist paradigm and the theoretical framework of PCK guided the data collection, organisation and analysis processes. Thirty teachers completed a questionnaire, which enabled me to identify PSTs who chose nuclear physics as the most difficult, difficult aspects of nuclear physics and reasons those aspects are difficult. Stratified purposive sampling was then used to choose four case teachers. I observed two lessons on nuclear physics for each case teacher by video recording them. I interviewed each case teacher before and after both lessons. I also interviewed a group of students after each lesson. Video recordings were discussed with the respective teachers. Some documents were collected. All interviews and video recordings were transcribed into text, coded using Atlas.ti 5.2 and analysed inductively. Content analysis was used with documents. Some learning difficulties surface during lessons and they mainly related to student conceptions, nature of concepts and mathematical manipulations. The case teachers could not anticipate most of them, irrespective of qualification. It would seem the teachers were hardly aware of lesson-specific difficulties. The case teachers used combinations of strategies that focused on transmission of information. The teachers hardly probed student thinking. Reasons given for strategies adopted revealed that qualified teachers emphasised only content while the under-qualified ones also emphasised pedagogy. iv Also qualified case teachers ascertained student understanding more frequently than the less qualified ones. Also one of the qualified teachers was able to articulate main ideas of the lessons, while the other three could hardly do so. I conclude that teachers with similar characteristics as those studied here need assistance to develop the following aspects of PCK in nuclear physics: awareness of learning difficulties, use of strategies that are based on student thinking and ability to articulate main ideas.

No description available.

Este trabalho é voltado para o estudo do desenvolvimento do Conhecimento Pedagógico do Conteúdo (PCK) de duas professoras no ensino de Ciências para crianças do 3º ano do Ensino Fundamental a partir de uma intervenção formativa sobre argumentação. Olhamos para a gravação de duas sequências de aulas realizadas em uma escola privada situada na cidade de São Caetano do Sul, região metropolitana de São Paulo. As professoras receberam o nome fictício de Ana e Sara e participaram, no ano de 2012, na unidade de trabalho, de um curso sobre argumentação. No início dessa formação, uma sequência de aulas com seus alunos sobre o tópico ciclo da água foi registrada em áudio e vídeo. No ano de 2015 uma segunda sequência de aulas foi gravada com alunos do mesmo ano escolar ensinando o mesmo tópico. Nossos objetivos foram, conhecer a formação inicial e a trajetória docente das professoras, analisar se a formação a que foram submetidas agregou elementos que pudessem subsidiá-las na implementação da argumentação em suas aulas e acessar o PCK das professoras para o tópico ciclo da água. Para analisar o desenvolvimento do PCK das professoras nos pautamos no Modelo proposto por Padilla. As principais conclusões foram: o conhecimento do conteúdo tem forte influência no PCK e; a formação que as professoras participaram reverberou em suas práticas docentes. Apontamos como contribuições mais importantes em suas aulas, o aumento da voz e da autonomia intelectual dos alunos. Contudo, quando olhamos para as duas sequências de aulas percebemos que a formação não foi condição suficiente para que abandonassem o formato das aulas que estavam habituadas e passassem a propor aos alunos o ensino numa perspectiva da argumentação. / The aim of this work is to study the development of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) of two elementary school science teachers at K-3 level from an educational intervention on argumentation. We looked at the recording of two sequences of classes held at a private school located in the city of São Caetano do Sul, metropolitan region of São Paulo. The teachers were given the fictitious name of Ana and Sara and participated of a course on argumentation in the year 2012, in the unit of work. At the beginning of this training, a sequence of classes with their students on the topic water cycle was recorded in audio and video. In the year of 2015 a second sequence of classes teaching the same topic was recorded with students of the same level. Our objectives were to know about initial education and the teaching trajectory of the teachers, to analyze if the training to which they were submitted added elements that could subsidize them in the implementation of the argumentation in their classes and to access the PCK of the teachers for the topic water cycle. In order to analyze the development of the PCK of the teachers we based on the Model proposed by Padilla. The main conclusions were that content knowledge has a strong influence on PCK and the training they participated reverberated in their teaching practices. We point out as the most important contributions in their classes, the increasing of the voice and the intellectual autonomy of students. However, when we looked at the two learning sequences we realized that the training was not enough condition for them to abandon the format of the classes they were using to and to propose to the students the teaching from an argumentative perspective.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2015. / Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is a knowledge base for teaching that has been shown to be topic-specific. PCK in a particular science topic enables a teacher to pedagogically transform Content Knowledge (CK) to teach that topic. This ability to transform CK for teaching purposes is a version of PCK recognised as Topic-Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TSPCK). TSPCK, like PCK, is not transferable, thus we cannot assume that good pedagogical transformations observed in one topic can be consequently observed in another. In addition it has been shown that the PCK knowledge base for teaching is tacit in nature. This means that most teachers with such a knowledge base are not aware of it explicitly, or how they develop it. The purpose of the study was to explore the mechanism which pre-service teachers used to apply learnt reasoning to transform CK in a new topic.

The purpose of this study is to implement an intervention designed to develop background knowledge and investigate its effects on science proficiency for students who are at risk for failure. Pretest scores for 130 students were analyzed to identify students with prior knowledge deficits that may put them at risk for failure. Of the 44 students identified, 26 were matched by pretest scores and randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Prior to the start of a Human Body systems unit, students in the experimental condition were explicitly taught the function and location of 15 organs of the human body. I analyzed pre-and posttest scores to determine if the instruction had an impact on student recall. This study was conducted using a pre/post experimental design to investigate the effectiveness of using explicit instruction to pre-expose students to content knowledge to help improve student outcomes. Quantitative data was analyzed to determine if student posttest scores for two measures of science proficiency improved significantly as a result of instruction provided during intervention. Study limitations and future directions for research are discussed.

The literature in reading comprehension has demonstrated that both domain-specific knowledge and strategic knowledge are vital to good comprehension. However, few studies have actually compared the effects of the two types of knowledge on reading comprehension. Fewer studies have examined the effects of combining the two strategies even though cognitive theories indicate that true comprehension occurs when certain procedures act upon knowledge constructed from the text being read and "link" that knowledge with knowledge in the long-term memory. This study compared subjects receiving strategic knowledge and content knowledge to subjects receiving strategic knowledge only, subjects receiving content-knowledge only, and a control group. Subjects were 9- and 10-year-old students in four fourth-grade classrooms. The design was a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. Subjects were given the comprehension and verbal subtests of the Stanford Achievement Test. Based on these tests, subjects were identified as high- or low-ability readers. In addition, they were given a comprehension pretest designed by the instructor before intervention began. The intervention took place over a 4-week period and consisted of a different series of lessons presented by an independent instructor. After the intervention, subjects took the posttest. SAT subtest scores and pretest scores were used as covariates in the final analysis. Results showed a decrease in the posttest means and no differences among the four experimental groups. Lack of findings was attributed to several factors, including lack of interest in the reading material on the comprehension tests and brevity of the intervention.

Efforts to improve education - more concretely science education - by creating fundamental shifts in standards for students and teachers have been launched by educators and policy makers in recent years. The new standards for science instruction address improvements in student learning, program development, assessment, and professional development for teachers, with the goal to prepare US students for the academic demands of the 21st century. The study examined teachers' knowledge and practices in science instruction with English language learning (ELL) students. It also examined relationships among key domains of science instruction with ELL students, as well as profiles of teaching practices. The four domains included: (1) teachers' knowledge of science content, (2) teaching practices to promote scientific understanding, (3) teaching practices to promote scientific inquiry, and (4) teaching practices to support English language development during science instruction. The study was part of a larger 5-year research and development intervention aimed at promoting science and literacy achievement of ELL students in urban elementary schools. The study involved 32 third grade, 21 fourth grade, and 17 fifth grade teachers participating in the first-year implementation of the intervention. Based on teachers' questionnaire responses, classroom observation ratings, and post-observation interviews, results indicated that (1) teachers' knowledge and practices were within the bounds of the intervention, but short of reform-oriented practices and (2) relationships among the four domains existed, especially at grade 5. These findings can provide insights for professional development and future research, along with accountability policies.

This study examined teacher pedagogical content knowledge changes through a Middle School Mathematics Program professional development workshop, development of noticing use of student representations, and teacher changes in hypothetical learning trajectories due to noticed aspects of student representation corresponding to the hypothetical learning trajectory model. Using constant comparatives and repertory grid analysis, data was collected in two phases. Phase one, the teacher pre-test, occurred at the beginning of the summer of the 2003 professional development workshop. Phase two, the teacher post-test, occurred at the end of the workshop. Twenty-four teachers supplied data on pre- and post-tests during phases one and two. Eleven teachers were from Texas and 13 from Delaware. Six Texas and eight Delaware teachers worked with the algebraic expression concepts. Five Texas and five Delaware teachers worked with the equivalent fraction concepts. Four mathematics education researchers from Texas, three from Delaware, and two from the American Association for the Advancement of Science participated in facilitating the professional development. The results show that teacher pedagogical content knowledge changes with the help of a professional development partnership. The differences in knowledge can be measured with a hierarchal cluster analysis of the repertory grid by analyzing relationships between constructs and elements. Teacher hypothetical learning trajectories change depending on student representations of what they do and do not know about concepts. The study encourages teachers to use knowledge of students’ representation about a concept to determine what to teach next and how the concept should be taught. Teachers should use different types of representations including formal, imagistic, and action representations in teaching mathematical ideas. This will promote student development in all process standards including reasoning and proof, communication, problem solving, and connection. The findings suggest that teacher pedagogical content knowledge can be redefined during professional development partnerships. Furthermore, teachers’ knowledge of representation is varied and emphasis on the imagistic representation should be explored further. Finally, professional development models that facilitate how to extract what a student does and does not know based on representation, can be the basis for defining hypothetical learning trajectories.