3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item Exploring the development of pre-service teachers’ topic specific PCK and its influence on learner outcomes(2020) Akinyemi, Olutosin SolomonThe construct of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) conceptualized by Lee Shulman is widely agreed upon among science education researchers as one important domain of teachers’ knowledge for improving classroom instructions. The purpose of this study was to explore the development of Topic Specific PCK (TSPCK) of a group of physical sciences pre-service teachers in the topic of organic chemistry, the quality of enacted TSPCK demonstrated in the actual classroom teaching and its influence on learner outcomes in the same topic. The study was located in a physical sciences(chemistry) methodology class of 17 pre-service teachers who were in their 3rdyear studying for a Bachelor of Education degree in a South African University. The study employed a mixed methods research design and a case study as the research strategy. The case comprised two mini-cases which included: the entire class of pre-service teachers for describing quality of planned TSPCK; a subset of 4 pre-service teachers with 4 classes of high school learners for describing the quality of enacted TSPCK and learner outcomes. The entire class of 17 pre-service teachers was exposed to an explicit TSPCK intervention over 6 weeks, focusing on the knowledge components for the pedagogical transformation of content knowledge of organic chemistry. Then, a subset of 4 pre-service teachers from the entire class was followed into the classroom where each of them delivered two lessons each on organic chemistry to 4 classes comprising a total of 88 physical sciences high school learners. The sources of data were: the pre-and post-TSPCK tests prior to and following the intervention; content representations (CoRes) completed during the intervention; video-recording of pre-service teachers’ lessons; pre-lesson interview and stimulated recall interview conducted with the pre-service teachers after the lessons; and pre-and post-learner achievement tests and learners’ views about the lessons. The TSPCK tests, CoRes and classroom lessons were analyzed using an in-depth qualitative method by identifying moments of interactive use of TSPCK components. The learners’ tests were scored using a memorandum of correct answers and analyzed for significant difference via the Rasch Model Analysis. Using both the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and Rasch Analysis softwares, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was estimated to determine the relationship between pre-service teachers’ enacted TSPCK and learner achievement. There were three major findings emerging from the entire analysis. First, following the intervention, the pre-service teachers’ TSPCK improved significantly. Second, the pre-service teachers demonstrated enacted TSPCK at the simple, proficient and sophisticated quality categories of TSPCK episodes, one category built onto another in describing the quality of lessons delivered. Third, following the pre-service teachers’ teachings, the learner achievement in the topic positively correlated with the PSTs’ enacted TSPCK and the correlation increased in positive strength with higher categories of TSPCK episodes emerging from the pre-service teachers’ lessons. The study provides novel understanding of the link across collective-TSPCK to personal-TSPCK to learner outcomesItem Pre-service teachers' development of topic specific PCK in kinematics and transferability of PCK competence to a new physics topic(2016-09-13) Akinyemi, Olutosin SolomonThere have been indications of inadequate content knowledge of South African physical science teachers and poor pedagogical content knowledge in making the concepts accessible to students. With this, the pre-service teachers are considered a part of the science education foremost links to schools and young science learners. Empirically, it has been reported that this unique teacher knowledge could be developed particularly in pre-service teachers in a planning context and that the new technique of developing pre-service teachers’ PCK within a topic helps in their good mastery of teaching concepts and thus making them specialists in topics. The Topic Specific PCK (TSPCK) construct focuses on the transformation of the understanding of content of a particular topic. This study investigated the extent to which focus on kinematics improves pre-service teachers’ PCK in the topic and possible transferability of the learnt pedagogical competence to a new physics topic – electric circuits. Guiding this study were two research questions: What is the impact of the intervention on the quality of pre-service teachers’ Topic Specific PCK in Kinematics? To what extent is the preservice teachers’ learnt pedagogical transformation competence transferrable to their planning of a new topic in physics topic – Electric circuits? This study used mixed methods to investigate TSPCK in pre-service teachers. It was located in the methodology class of Twenty-three (23) 4th year physical science majors. The study included an intervention where the theoretical framework for TSPCK was used to introduce the construct in Kinematics. The intervention explains each of the five components of Topic Specific PCK using the knowledge concepts of Kinematics. Data were collected using three instruments: an instrument measuring content knowledge in kinematics; an instrument measuring the quality of Topic Specific PCK in kinematics administered as a set of pre/post intervention tests; and an instrument measuring transferability of learnt competence in planning for teaching a new topic electricity. The pre-service teachers’ written responses to the TSPCK kinematics tool were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Both methods of analysis revealed that the pre-service teachers improved in their quality of TSPCK in kinematics following the intervention. It was also found out that the pre-service teachers’ improvement in the quality of TSPCK in kinematics was as result of rigorous engagement with the TSPCK components at varying degrees. Similarly, on the topic of transfer, electricity which was not discussed during the intervention, TSPCK tool in electric circuits was administered to the pre-service teachers and few records of their actual classroom teaching were analyzed. This was done to examine possible transferability of learnt pedagogical transformation competence to the new physics topic of electricity. The findings revealed that the pre-service teachers had ‘developing level’ of TSPCK in the topic of transfer similar to the finding in the topic of kinematics. The study demonstrated that focus on a single topic in a methodology course will enable transfer to another topic provided the teachers have the pre-requisite content knowledge. The findings of this study would contribute to the training of the Physical science student teachers and specifically improve their planning of other physics topics to enhance effective teaching and learning process.