Teachers’ Perceived Enacted Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Biology at Selected Secondary Schools in Lusaka

Abstract

The pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of teachers influences students’ achievement of the learning outcomes. This study examined teachers’ perceived enactment of PCK in biology. The quantitative survey design was adopted by using a Likert-scale questionnaire consisting of six components of PCK, namely curricular saliency, students’ prior knowledge, what makes the subject easy or difficult, representations, conceptual teaching strategies, and assessment. Data on teachers’ perceived enacted PCK (ePCK) were collected from 54 biology teachers selected from 14 secondary schools in three districts of Lusaka province. The data were analyzed by computing descriptive and inferential statistics using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The findings revealed that: (a) respondents’ perceived ePCK was high (M = 4.29, SD = .37), (b) respondents’ perceived ePCK was not influenced by gender, teaching experience, and type of school, (c) respondents’ perceived ePCK was influenced by their academic qualifications, (d) the component students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions was the most enacted component, and (e) the component what makes the subject easy or difficult was the least enacted component. The results highlight areas in teachers’ PCK that require enhancement. The study recommends using teacher professional development to enhance teachers’ ePCK in the component what makes the subject easy or difficult to understand. Further research may use larger samples and more data sources to increase the validity of the findings.

Students’ Perceptions of Biology Teachers’ Enacted Pedagogical Content Knowledge at Selected Secondary Schools in Lusaka Province of Zambia

“…The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used to analyse the data. The responses were treated as though they were continuous data, so that aggregated means and standard deviations were computed (Lai & Lin., 2018;Mapulanga et al, 2022b). Therefore, appropriate descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) were used to describe students' perceptions of teachers' ePCK.…”

“…However, these results contradict with teachers' perceptions of their ePCK. For example, a previous study found that teachers had high perceptions of their PCK enactment (Mapulanga et al, 2022b). The difference in students' and teachers' perceptions needs to be investigated further.…”

Technological pedagogical content knowledge self-efficacy of pre-service science and mathematics teachers: A comparative study between two Zambian universities

“…Mean responses of 1-2.9 were considered low, those of 3-3-9 were considered moderate whereas 4-4.9 was considered high-level self-efficacy, with mean scores of five being considered very high-level self-efficacy. The classification of mean responses as low, high and very high were adopted from Mapulanga et al (2022) and applied to the context of this study.…”

Improving Secondary School Biology Teachers’ Topic-Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge: Evidence From Lesson Studies

“…Although there is abundant research on biology teachers' TSPCK (Bravo & Cofré, 2016;Mthethwa-Khunene, 2015;Nilsson & Karlsson, 2018: Park & Chen, 2012, fewer studies are investigating biology teachers' TSPCK in respiration (Mapulanga et al, 2022a;2022b). This is despite research showing that students face challenges and misconceptions about respiratory concepts (Dam et al, 2019).…”

“…Furthermore, they also reported that the least integrated components were what makes the topic easy or difficult and representations. In another related study, Mapulanga et al (2022b) explored the Zambian teachers' perceptions of PCK enactment in biology. They concluded that the teachers' perception of their enacted PCK components was high except for the component -what makes the subject easy or difficult.…”