Does teaching experience matter? Examining biology teachers' prior knowledge for teaching in an alternative certification program

Abstract

Alternative certification programs (ACPs) have been proposed as a viable way to address teacher shortages, yet we know little about how teacher knowledge develops within such programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate prior knowledge for teaching among students entering an ACP, comparing individuals with teaching experience to those lacking teaching experience. Of the four participants seeking secondary biology teaching certification, two participants had 2 years of prior biology teaching experience. We used the Lesson Preparation Method as a data collection tool, asking participants to create lesson plans to teach the concept of heritable variation. Primary data sources were the lesson plans and follow-up interview transcripts. Prior teaching experience made little difference as both groups held didactic teaching orientations and wrote similar lesson plans. Both groups drew on general pedagogical knowledge (PK), and had little pedagogical content knowledge for teaching heritable variation. Teaching experience did appear to lead to more integration among PK components. The study includes implications for the teacher education, research, and policy. ß

Examining pedagogical knowledge content on mitosis in a University context

“…The interaction of the components of PCK has been noted to be limited in research with novice teachers (González and Rossi, 2014a); a similar situation has been demonstrated in investigations with preservice teachers (Friedrichsen et al 2009). Kind (2009) points that PCK remains unnoticed by many science teachers; for instance, as many of our fellow university teachers, Sylvia and Juliette, the two experienced teachers in the present work had never heard the term.…”

Teachers' professional growth during the development and class enactment of context-based chemistry student learning material

“…In this sense it is considered to be subject specific (E. A. Davis & Krajcik, 2005;Friedrichsen, et al, 2009). In times of a curricular reform, teachers have to bring their PCK in line with the reform demands.…”

Influencia de la formación y la investigación didáctica del profesorado de ciencias sobre su práctica docente

“…Friedrichsen et al (2009) consideran tres aspectos: los propios antecedentes escolares, la formación inicial y la experiencia profesional. Dado que la literatura ha puesto de manifiesto que organizar al profesorado en función de su conocimiento profesional docente ayuda a formular propuestas de mejora de la formación (Van Driel y Berry, 2012;Nilsson y Vikström, 2015), nosotros añadimos a los tres aspectos anteriores: i) la formación continua recibida durante la trayectoria profesional; ii) el conocimiento de los resultados obtenidos por la investigación, adquirido mediante la lectura de revistas o a través de cursos, y iii) la realización de investigaciones o innovaciones que permitan apreciar la eficacia de las nuevas propuestas de enseñanza-aprendizaje.…”