Exploring the relationship between secondary science teachers’ subject matter knowledge and knowledge of student conceptions while teaching evolution by natural selection

Lucero, Margaret M.; Petrosino, Anthony; Delgado, César

doi:10.1002/tea.21344

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…other researchers as an indispensable prerequisite for good teaching (e.g., de Jong & van Driel, 2004;Gess-Newsome, 2015;Kind, 2009;Lucero, Petrosino, & Delgado, 2017;Nilsson & Loughran, 2012;Park & Oliver, 2008;van Driel & Berry, 2012). This is also the case for the second component "knowledge of instructional strategies" that "has been most frequently referred to in the literature as a main component of PCK" (Seung, Bryan, & Haugan, 2012, p. 453).…”

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confidence: 99%

Pedagogical content knowledge of experts and novices—what knowledge do they activate when analyzing science lessons?

et al. 2017

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In the current debate on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), the term is used to refer to the context-specific knowledge that teachers activate when reflecting on practice. Against the background of this debate, we conducted an empirical study and sought to answer the question of which knowledge experts and novices activated in assessing a videotaped lesson in relation to its effectiveness for learning. Our assumption was that the participants activate their PCK as a blending of content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical knowledge (PK) as suggested by Shulman's amalgam thesis. The participants (9 experts and 9 novices) were shown a lesson on optics, in which the law of refraction (Snell's law) was being studied. In a subsequent interview, the participants were asked to analyze the observed lesson. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the interviews showed that experts activated both CK and PK intensively and in this respect they differed significantly from novices. Further analysis of the expert statements also proved that they do not activate their CK and PK in isolation, but instead combine both kinds of knowledge together, in line with Shulman's amalgam thesis. # 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 55: 2018 Keywords: pedagogical content knowledge; science teacher education; professional development; teacher cognition Discussions on the nature of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) have been circulating for around three decades. The origin of these discussions can be traced back to the works of Shulman (1986Shulman ( , 1987 and his concern that the efforts being made at the time to prepare pre-service teachers were largely focused on imparting general pedagogical skills while at the same time questions regarding the content to be taught in lessons were being neglected. Therefore, he called for teacher education to be more strongly focused on content in the future and felt that content and pedagogy should be viewed as "part of one indistinguishable body" (1986, p. 6).This demand was linked to a classification of teacher knowledge, in which Shulman differentiated between seven components of knowledge: content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, curriculum knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of learners and their characteristics, knowledge of educational contexts, and knowledge of educational ends, purposes, and values, and their philosophical and historical grounds (1987). Within this structure for classifying knowledge, however, Shulman placed particular emphasis on PCK. "Among those categories, pedagogical content knowledge is of special interest because it identifies the distinctive bodies of knowledge for teaching. It represents the blending of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular topics, problems, or issues are organized, represented and adapted to the diverse interests and abilities of learners, and presented for instruction." (1987, p. 8) This definition of PCK was linked to Shulman's "amalgam thesis": PCK is "that specific amalga...

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confidence: 99%

Pedagogical content knowledge of experts and novices—what knowledge do they activate when analyzing science lessons?

et al. 2017

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“…In our review of these recent studies, we found few about teachers' misconceptions. Also, we found that researchers refer to students' or teachers' misconceptions frequently from a conceptual change perspective (Lucero et al, 2017; Potvin & Cyr, 2017). Although the latter approach is common, we found very few research articles about misconceptions connected to SMK or specialized knowledge for teaching (Huttner & Markman, 2016; Maerten‐Rivera et al, 2015).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 75%

Setting empirically informed content knowledge policy benchmarks for physical science teaching

et al. 2021

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In the United States, research on beginning science teachers provides little guidance regarding empirical minimum levels of discipline‐specific science coursework for sufficient subject matter knowledge to teach science. Accordingly, in this study we analyzed secondary physical science teachers' science coursework for subject matter knowledge (SMK) and resulting misconceptions of chemistry and physics concepts. Findings were compared with state‐level science teacher certification policies. Participants had either: (a) completed a master's level teacher preparation program with an undergraduate degree in science, (b) completed an undergraduate teacher preparation program with a minor degree or more in science, or (c) were undergraduate students enrolled in science courses required for chemistry and physics teacher certification. We analyzed participants' transcripts for discipline‐specific science coursework credit hours and GPAs and identified possible predictors of SMK predictors of the likelihood of passing chemistry and physics misconceptions tests. We categorized teachers' level of SMK and used multiple variable and logistic regressions (n = 212 participants; n = 109 chemistry and n = 103 physics). To identify teacher candidates' possible misconceptions, we analyzed chemistry (n = 97) and physics (n = 91) participants' item responses with the corresponding science credit hours and GPAs. With increasing numbers of credit hours teachers held fewer misconceptions. However, even with medium to high SMK levels, teachers still held misconceptions about chemical bonding, electromagnetism, and Newton's laws until they reached critical credit hour and GPA thresholds. Lastly, we provide recommendations for physical science teachers' programs of study and state‐level teaching certification policies, using empirical minimum quantity and quality of chemistry, physics, and mathematics coursework.

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“…Therefore, biology teachers must associate the origin of humankind with natural selection. This association importance for the teaching of evolution has been pointed out in several studies highlighting the need to find ways for it to be assimilated by students (Lucero et al 2017;Clarke-Midura et al 2018). Furthermore, the term "Australopithecus" refers to the ancient line of the genus Homo as described in several works such as Lovejoy (1981) and Leakey (1995).…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Biology teachers’ conceptions of Humankind Origin across secular and religious countries: an international comparison

Silva

Oliveira

Belloso³

et al. 2021

Evo Edu Outreach

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Striving toward a better understanding of how the global spread of creationist ideology may impact biology teachers and teaching worldwide, this study comparatively examines how biology teachers from three Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay) conceive the origin of humankind. It is reported that teachers from Uruguay (the most secular country) and Argentina (a country with intermediate religiosity) more frequently associated humankind origin with scientific terms Evolution, Natural selection, and Australopithecus. In contrast, Brazilian teachers stood out as those most frequently associating humankind’s origin to the religious term “God” alongside scientific terms. This study underscores the importance of the interplay of social factors (societal religiosity) and psychological factors (e.g., personal commitment) when considering the impact of teacher exposure to creationist ideology. It also highlights the need for biology teachers (particularly those in more religious countries) to undergo professional development.

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Exploring the relationship between secondary science teachers’ subject matter knowledge and knowledge of student conceptions while teaching evolution by natural selection

Cited by 21 publications

References 59 publications

Pedagogical content knowledge of experts and novices—what knowledge do they activate when analyzing science lessons?

Pedagogical content knowledge of experts and novices—what knowledge do they activate when analyzing science lessons?

Setting empirically informed content knowledge policy benchmarks for physical science teaching

Biology teachers’ conceptions of Humankind Origin across secular and religious countries: an international comparison

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