Browsing by Subject "Pedagogical content knowledge"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item The effects of a professional development program on elementary and middle school teachers’ understanding and acceptance of macroevolution and how they teach it(2013-12) Cid, Christina Ramsey; Petrosino, Anthony J. (Anthony Joseph), 1961-Despite science education reform efforts stressing the importance of understanding evolution, many students receive little to no exposure to the most important unifying concept in biology. Since evolution is basic to the study of biology, its study should begin with the introduction of the life sciences to students in elementary school. However, many teachers lack sufficient evolutionary content knowledge, have limited acceptance of evolution, and have little confidence to effectively teach it. Better teacher preparation is needed to meet the challenges of ensuring students develop conceptual understanding of evolution. While research shows the general public typically accepts microevolution while rejecting macroevolution, few studies have focused on peoples’ understanding of macroevolution. Additionally, little research exists examining the effects of an intervention on elementary and middle school teachers’ acceptance, understanding, and teaching of macroevolution. Using a conceptual framework based on the Cognitive Reconstruction of Knowledge Model, this study reports the effects of a sustained professional development program on 4th through 8th grade teachers’ acceptance of evolution; understanding of macroevolution; and approach to teaching evolution in schools, awareness of challenges to teaching evolution, and pedagogical content knowledge about teaching macroevolution. This study also explores the relationship between teachers’ understanding of macroevolution and acceptance of evolution. Various data sources, including the Measurement of the Understanding of Macroevolution (Nadelson & Southerland, 2010), the Measure of the Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (Rutledge & Warden, 1999), teacher interviews, and teacher workshop reflections, were used to answer the research questions. Results from the study revealed that after attending the professional development series, teachers’ understanding of macroevolution and acceptance of evolution significantly increased. Acceptance of evolution was positively correlated to understanding of macroevolution. Teachers’ prior understanding of macroevolution was a significant positive predictor of their subsequent acceptance of evolution. Teachers’ prior acceptance of evolution was a significant predictor of their understanding of macroevolution, but only after teachers participated in at least half of the sustained professional development. Finally, teachers demonstrated having increased macroevolutionary pedagogical content knowledge. This effect was strong in those teachers who were initially low acceptors of evolution. The significance of these findings is discussed.Item The relationship between teacher pedagogical content knowledge and student understanding of integer operations(2010-12) Harris, Sarah Jane, 1969-; Martin, Taylor, 1970-; Berland, Leema; Barufaldi, James; Marshall, Jill; Pituch, KeenanThe purpose of this study was to determine whether a professional development (PD) for teachers focused on improving teacher pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) related to operations with integers would improve teacher PCK and if there was a relationship between their level of PCK and the change in the understanding of their students as measured by pre- and posttest of teacher and student knowledge. The study was conducted summer 2010 in a large urban school district on two campuses providing a district funded annual summer intervention, called Jumpstart. This program was for grade 8 students who did not pass the state assessment (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills), but would be promoted to high school in the Fall 2010 due to a decision made by the Grade Placement Committee. The Jumpstart program involved 22 teachers and 341 students. For purposes of this study, changes were made to the PD and typical curriculum for a unit on integer operations to promote teacher and student conceptual understanding through a process of mathematical discussion called argumentation. The teachers and students explored a comprehensive representation for integer operations called a vector number line model using the Texas Instruments TI-73 calculator Numln application. During PD, teachers engaged in argumentation to make claims about strategies to use to understand integer operations and to explain their understanding of how different representations are connected. The results showed statistically significant growth in teacher PCK following the professional development and statistically significant growth in student understanding from pre- to posttest compared to the students who participated in the program the previous year. The findings also showed that there was a statistically significant association between teacher posttest PCK and student improvement in understanding even when controlling for years of teaching experience, teacher pretest knowledge, and student pretest score. This adds to the research base additional evidence that professional development focused on teacher pedagogical content knowledge can have a positive effect on student achievement, even with just a short period of PD (6 hours in this case).Item The role of teacher efficacy in the development of pedagogical content knowledge among experienced science teachers(2014-05) Han, Soon Wook; Barufaldi, James P.The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the developmental process of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) among experienced science teachers. Since teaching is a "learned profession" (Shulman, 1987) centered on a unique set of knowledge, PCK becomes a critical avenue to investigating the roots of effective teaching. Research suggests that PCK develops and grows through classroom practice (Lederman, Gess-Newsome, & Latz, 1994; van Driel, Verloop, & de Vos, 1998; van Driel, De Jong, & Verloop, 2002). In addition, teacher efficacy has been argued to be an "affective affiliate" of PCK (Park, 2007) indicating an association between empowered teachers and knowledge growth. Therefore, this study examined the role of teacher efficacy in sustaining PCK growth among experienced teachers to better comprehend the mechanism of action of classroom teaching experience. This collective case study involved three experienced high school science teachers who have been teaching for at least eight years. Data collection involved the use of classroom observations coupled with teacher interviews. In addition, instruments used in data collection included the use of the CoRe/PaPeRs (Content Representation/Pedagogical and Professional Experience Repertoires) template for validating PCK episodes (Loughran, Mulhall, & Berry, 2004; Loughran, Berry, & Mulhall, 2006) as well as the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI) that was used to evaluate efficacy levels. Data analysis indicated teacher efficacy plays a pivotal role in developing PCK through a system of validation and evaluation of the teacher's cognitive belief structure. Furthermore, it was determined that as teachers gain classroom teaching experience, their sustained PCK growth is the result of increasing their knowledge of student understanding.Item Teachers' orientations towards and awareness of students' evolutionary and natural selection alternative conceptions and their influence on teaching practice(2013-05) Lucero, Margaret Marie; Petrosino, Anthony J. (Anthony Joseph), 1961-; Marshall, Jill; Delgado, Cesar; Barufaldi, James; Irwin, LouisEvolution is the conceptual framework on which biology is based, but its components are not well understood by many individuals, and the topic is home to many deeply-held alternative conceptions. Nevertheless, eliciting alternative conceptions can be a valuable resource for both teaching and learning, but teachers often feel ill-equipped with how to elicit their students’ alternative conceptions and/or use them in an effective manner to deepen their students’ understanding of scientific concepts. Little research exists regarding how the daily demands and practices of a group of high school teachers from the same campus impact their students’ understanding of evolutionary concepts when being aware of, eliciting, and potentially using their students’ alternative conceptions as resources for learning. Using a conceptual framework that focuses on the relationship between teachers’ subject matter knowledge (SMK) and aspects of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), this set of studies reports a line of inquiry from a single site that researched how: 1) students from an urban high school learned various evolutionary and nature of science (NOS) concepts; 2) one group of biology teachers went about eliciting and using their students’ alternative conceptions on various evolutionary concepts during classroom instruction; and 3) another group of biology teachers planned and implemented an instructional unit on evolution when their students’ alternative conceptions were predicted and identified with a concept inventory, specifically the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS). Various data sources, including classroom observations and teacher interviews, were used to examine the teachers’ practices in the latter two studies. Results from the third (current) study revealed the teachers were well aware of their students’ natural selection alternative conceptions and this area of their PCK was not necessarily related to their SMK of the topic. Sustaining a kind of supportive learning environment where alternative conceptions were elicited and used for learning was a goal of the teachers, but they felt they could not capitalize on such opportunities for learning due to various personal and/or institutional constraints. Results also demonstrated that the teachers valued how the CINS probed student understanding and used its results strategically, and made several recommendations for high school use.