Development of PCK for novice and experienced university physics instructors: a case study

Abstract

The current study assessed and compared university students' perceptions' of a novice and an experienced physics instructor's Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). Two college physics instructors and 116 students voluntarily participated in this study. The research model comprised three workshops, mid-term and final evaluations and instructor interviews. The results showed that each instructor's PCK performance in four categories was slightly improved, though the difference was not statistically significant and only the category of Instructional Representation and Strategies (IRS) was found to be statistically different by students' evaluations of their instructor's PCK. The experienced instructor emphasized life examples and experiments, whereas, the novice instructor emphasized explanations and quizzes. Furthermore, the PCK questionnaire provided university instructors with adequate information so the instructors could receive students' feedback as available sources to reflect on their teaching to improve their quality of teaching. Research implications of this study are provided along with suggestions for future research.

Exploring the technical pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) of Taiwanese university physics instructors

“…As for teaching experience, experienced physics instructors rated their SMK and IRS significantly higher than did novice instructors. Research on PCK suggests that experienced teachers generally show higher content and pedagogical knowledge the more years they teach; thus, greater subject matter knowledge and pedagogical knowledge could be developed by actual teaching experience (Jang, Tsai, & Chen, 2013). Nilsson (2008) emphasised the role of teaching experience as a way of understanding better the complex entities that constitute a knowledge base for teaching.…”

“…By examining students' judgments, we can more objectively evaluate the instructional field. This is unlike traditional evaluation of teachers which is based on observation where the interview data might refer to few subjects (Jang, 2011;Jang, Tsai, & Chen, 2013). Generally, university professors' perceived professional knowledge might be higher, while questionnaires measuring students' perceptions can balance their subjectivity.…”

Assessing university students' perceptions of their Physics instructors' TPACK development in two contexts

“…However, students responded that assignments and tests were too numerous and the teaching pace felt too rushed. The questionnaire, in this instance, provided valuable data for Mike to make a diagnostic evaluation of the student opinions and adjust the level of homework and tests for the course (Jang, Tsai & Chen, 2013 Via the TPACK survey, we found college students' perceptions of their Physics instructors' TPACK changed from mid to the end of semester. In essence, university instructors tend to have large egos in the traditional classroom.…”

Evaluation of the effectiveness of student learning and teacher instruction on team-based learning during quality control of diagnostic imaging

“…After the instructor accumulated more TBL teaching experience, more themes were coded from the interviews. The findings could explain that the instructor's skills could progressively develop as she made more reflections on her TBL teaching [55,56]. When teachers become active agents in finding ways to improve their teaching strategies, their cognition of needs for change can be stimulated, increasing their motivation to improve their instruction.…”