A Case Study on the Changes in Teaching Professionalism of Beginning Science-gifted Education Teachers through Mentoring in the Aspects of Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Abstract

This study investigated the changes in teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers through mentoring in the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planed, performed and reflected on science instructions for secondary science-gifted students through mentoring during nine class hours over three times respectively. We observed their instructions and analyzed the taped videos, the materials, the transcripts for in-depth interviews with mentees, and discussions between mentor and mentee, researcher's field notes by using the constant comparative method. This study revealed that the mentoring, although there were many limitations, positively changed the mentees' practical knowledge about the curriculum for science-gifted education, the instructional strategies for science-gifted education, the assessment in science-gifted education, the science-gifted students, and the science content. These results suggest that the mentoring will be useful in improving the teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers and provide meaningful implications in finding the ways to use it effectively in science-gifted education.