Preservice and Experienced Biology Teachers' Global and Specific Subject Matter Structures: Implications for Conceptions of Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This study aimed to describe preservice and experienced secondary biology teachers' global and specific subject matter structures (SMSs) and elucidate the relationship between these structures and teaching experience. Teachers' global and specific SMSs respectively designate their conceptions and/or organization of their disciplines and of specific topics within those disciplines. Two preservice and two experienced secondary biology teachers were chosen to participate in the study. Participants were administered two open-ended questionnaires and were individually interviewed to assess their conceptions of biology and photosynthesis. The data were qualitatively analyzed through several rounds of category generation, confirmation, and modification. Teachers' global SMSs fell on a continuum from poorly articulated to well integrated and thematically organized. Contrary to global SMSs, specific SMSs separated the participants into their preservice and experienced groups. Unlike their preservice counterparts, the experienced teachers did not emphasize the details of photosynthesis and viewed the process as part of larger biological processes and systems. Analyses indicated that teaching experience and attention to student needs explained these latter differences. The present results indicate that the role of teaching experience in developing teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) should be emphasized and incorporated into theorizing the construct of PCK.

Pedagogical content knowledge in science education: perspectives and potential for progress

“…Abd El-Khalick (2006), for example, argues that integrative models lack explanatory power, as no mechanism is suggested that shows how the interaction between SMK, pedagogy and contextual factors results in PCK. Banks et al (2005) suggest a teacher's -personal subject construct‖, which could be the missing link.…”

Important Biological Issues for Elementary Pupils – A Study of Elementary Pre-service Teachers’ Conceptions

“…Davis, Petish, & Smithey, 2006;Opwood & Souque, 1985) and PCK (e.g. Abd-el-Khalick, 2006;Appleton, 2003;Nilsson & Loughran, 2012) have been published both in other countries and in Finland (Palmberg, 2012;Palmberg, Jeronen, Svens, Yli-Panula, Andersson, & Jonsson, 2012;Palmberg, Jonsson, Jeronen, & Yli-Panula, 2016 ). We are unaware of any study that examines the issues, which this investigation is focused on.…”

The learning continuum of ecology based on teachers’ opinion about student’s level of competence and specific pedagogical learning material

“…knowledge on various subjects taught in the level of a particular class in a particular year and curricular vertical i.e. knowledge of what has been and what will be taught in the same subject in the following and previous years [40].…”