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
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/25003 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Van der Merwe, Denise |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (viii, 105 leaves), application/pdf |
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