Exploring dynamic pedagogical content knowledge across fundamental concepts of electrostatics

Abstract

This paper reports a case study that explored teachers’ dynamic pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) across three big ideas of electrostatics namely the electrostatic force, electric field, and electric field strength. Two pre-service and two in-service teachers participated in the study. The refined consensus model of PCK was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study. We studied PCK as enacted during classroom teaching using observations and interviews. Data was analyzed alongside a four-point scale grand PCK rubric used to score the competence of the teachers for every big idea. The results showed that PCK of the teachers varied across the big ideas, which is attributed to the nature of concepts, as well as teachers’ content knowledge in each. The findings imply that pre-service teacher education programs should involve focus on teaching specific concepts to support the development of holistic PCK for a topic.