Investigating Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ Diagnostic Competences: Relationships between Professional Knowledge, Diagnostic Activities, and Diagnostic Accuracy

Abstract

Teachers’ diagnostic competences are essential with respect to student achievement, classroom assessment, and instructional quality. Important components of diagnostic competences are teachers’ professional knowledge including content knowledge (CK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), their diagnostic activities as a specification of situation-specific skills, and diagnostic accuracy. Accuracy is determined by comparing a teacher’s observation of classroom incidents with subject-specific challenges to be identified from scripted instructional situations. To approximate diagnostic situations close to real-life, the assessment of science teachers’ diagnostic competences requires a situated context that was provided through videotaped classroom situations in this study. We investigated the relationship between professional knowledge (PCK, CK, PK) of 186 pre-service biology teachers, their diagnostic activities, and diagnostic accuracy measured with the video-based assessment tool DiKoBi Assess. Results of path analyses utilizing Rasch measures showed that both PCK and PK were statistically significantly related to pre-service teachers’ diagnostic activities. Additionally, biology teachers’ PCK was positively related to diagnostic accuracy. Considering higher effect sizes of PCK compared to PK, the findings support previous findings indicating the importance of PCK, thus demonstrating its importance in the context of subject-specific diagnosis as well.

Professional Knowledge and Self-Efficacy Expectations of Pre-Service Teachers Regarding Scientific Reasoning and Diagnostics

“…To put this in perspective, knowledge of students' difficulties and frequent sticking points can help teachers design lessons in a student-oriented way (cf., [174]). Studies on subject-specific teaching quality in biology with respect to diagnostic competencies have shown that PCK and PK are statistically significantly related to preservice teachers' diagnostic activities, and biology teachers' PCK is positively related to diagnostic accuracy [95]. Teachers are expected to provide students with learning opportunities that help them develop 21st-century skills, including core competencies in subject areas such as science.…”

“…Results of path analyses utilising Rasch measures showed that both PCK and PK were statistically significantly in relation to pre-service teachers' diagnostic activities. Additionally, biology teachers' PCK was positively related to diagnostic accuracy [95].…”

“…Making efficient instructionally relevant decisions is impossible without being able to identify, understand, and even predict instructionally relevant situations and events [94]. Thus, the investment of a (subject-related) diagnostic competence of (preservice) teachers seems to be an indispensable prerequisite for the teaching profession [95]). In Shulman's three main domains of professional knowledge (content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), pedagogical knowledge (PK) [96], which is the most widely used classification in the literature, knowledge about assessment and diagnosis is classified in the domain of general didactical knowledge (pedagogical knowledge, PK) [97].…”

“…In Shulman's three main domains of professional knowledge (content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), pedagogical knowledge (PK) [96], which is the most widely used classification in the literature, knowledge about assessment and diagnosis is classified in the domain of general didactical knowledge (pedagogical knowledge, PK) [97]. Kramer et al [95] describe either PK (more generic: e.g., teaching disorder [98]) or the subject-specific facets CK or PCK (e.g., diagnosing biology instruction, [99]) as relevant to the application of diagnostic activities and diagnostic accuracy, depending on the diagnostic focus. Results of path analyses utilising Rasch measures showed that both PCK and PK were statistically significantly in relation to pre-service teachers' diagnostic activities.…”

Der Simulierte Klassenraum Biologie – Erfassung deklarativen und prozeduralen Wissens bei Lehramtsstudierenden der Biologie

“…Hier stellten Krauss et al (2020) fest, dass Fragebogenformate vor allem das deklarative Wissen fokussieren, wohingegen mithilfe von Videovignetten eher situationsspezifische Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten erfasst werden können (Blömeke et al 2015;Lindmeier 2010, Kaiser et al 2015. Kramer et al (2021) konnten bspw. Zusammenhänge zwischen den Facetten des Professionswissens, erhoben über einen Fragebogen, und den gezeigten diagnostischen Aktivitäten, erfasst mit einer videobasierten Klassenraumsituation, angehender Biologie-Lehrkräfte nachweisen.…”