The investigation of pedagogical content knowledge of teachers: The case of teaching genetics

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Matematik ve Fen Bilimleri Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2014

Öğrenci: MURAT AYDEMİR

Danışman: JALE ÇAKIROĞLU

Özet:

In this study science teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) on genetics was investigated with respect to science teachers’ knowledge of curriculum, knowledge of students, and knowledge of teaching strategies. Five experienced science teachers (one male and four female) teaching genetics to 8th grades from five middle schools participated in the study. Case study, one of the qualitative research designs, was adopted as a research design. In order to gather information on content knowledge and PCK components, genetics test, pre-PCK interview, classroom observations, and post-PCK interview were employed. Findings of the study revealed that participants did not fully comprehend basic concepts in genetics. In a similar vein, they did not express sound curriculum knowledge and they employed applications exceeding the curriculum border such as solving problem about hereditary diseases crossing. Moreover, participants represented generally sound knowledge of students with respect to both knowledge of requirements and difficulties of students while learning genetics. However, they had limited knowledge on teaching strategies for both subject specific (e.g. learning cycle) and topic specific (e.g. representation, activities). In addition, participants did not employed representations to teach genetics concepts meaningfully and any activities to help their students learn the relationships between genetics concepts. All of the participant teachers employed a similar teaching approach to overcome students’ misconceptions and difficulties such as giving explanations.