This paper reports a case study of four grade 10 physical sciences teachers" PCK about graphs of motion. We used three data collection strategies, namely teachers" written accounts, captured by the Content Representation (CoRe) tool, interviews and classroom observations. We conceptualised the PCK displayed in the CoRe tool and the interview as "reported PCK" and the PCK demonstrated during lessons as "enacted PCK". These two manifestations of PCK were compared to establish the extent of agreement between reported and enacted PCK. We adopted the Topic Specific PCK (TSPCK) model as the framework that guided this study. This model describes TSPCK in terms of five components of teacher knowledge. Guided by the model, we designed two rubrics to assess these manifestations of TSPCK on a four point scale. The results of this study indicated that the reported PCK was not necessarily a reflection of the PCK enacted during teaching. The levels of PCK in the components were seldom higher in the enacted PCK, but tended to be similar or lower than in the reported PCK. The study implies that the enactment of PCK should be emphasized in teacher education.

This paper reports on topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) enacted by three pre-service science teachers during their final year school-based internship. An interpretive, qualitative case study was conducted to investigate to what extent the pre-service teachers applied the knowledge taught during a preceding physical science method course, when teaching electromagnetism for the first time. The study is rooted in the revised consensus model of PCK with focus on the enacted PCK (ePCK) of pre-service teachers. Five topicspecific PCK components informed the design of an ePCK rubric used to assess the extent to which the pre-service teachers' PCK manifested in their practice. Data were captured by written content representations (CoRes), lesson observations and interviews. The rubric, together with further qualitative analysis, was used to determine how the pre-service teachers translated the knowledge taught during training into practice. Findings indicate that the participating pre-service teachers enacted certain components of the taught PCK and reasoned pedagogically about their teaching, though not at the same level for all main ideas in the topic. After teaching the topic, the pre-service teachers indicated that they would like to improve their sequencing of key concepts. It was concluded that the teaching experience contributed to a better understanding of conceptual teaching strategies. The findings of the study may inform PCK development in teacher education.

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It has recently been suggested that pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has a concept-specific nature, beyond the topic-specific level of PCK. This paper reports a case study of three pre-service teachers' reported PCK about three fundamental concepts within the topic of electrostatics, namely electrostatic force, electric field and electric field strength. The aim of the study was to compare the quality of the PCK of each of the individual participants across these fundamental concepts. Data was collected using a content representation tool and a lesson planning form prescribed by the participants' teacher training institution. A topic-specific PCK model was adopted as the framework for this study. The model asserts that the content of a particular topic is transformed for instruction through five components, namely learners' prior knowledge, curricular saliency, what is difficult to teach, representations including analogies and conceptual teaching strategies. Guided by the model, we designed a rubric to assess the concept-specific PCK of the participants on a four-point scale. The results of the study indicated that the PCK of the participants varied across the fundamental concepts of electrostatics, with each participant reporting better PCK for a different concept. The results of the study imply that describing PCK at concept level is appropriate and recommend that PCK should be strengthened at concept level during teacher training to ensure that it develops across all of the concepts within a topic.

This paper reports a quantitative study about university students’ conceptual understanding of simple DC-circuits when entering firstyear physics at a South African university. The aim was to investigate how conceptual understanding relates to the students’ personal and school background. The conceptual framework was based on an existing model of the effectiveness of science education. Data were collected from 815 participants at a South African university. The conceptual understanding of DC circuits was measured in terms of performance in the well-known Determining and Interpreting Resistive Electric Circuits Concepts Test (DIRECT). Background information at school, classroom, and personal level was obtained with a questionnaire. Using Rash analysis, it was found that the students’ conceptual understanding relates significantly to the type of school attended, home language, previous achievement, their attitudes towards physics, and gender. However, contrary to expectations, the students’ conceptual understanding did not show a relationship with their exposure to practical work at school.