Examination of topic-specific nature of pedagogical content knowledge: a case of science teacher of gifted students

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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: 2017

Öğrenci: BURAK ÇAYLAK

Danışman: JALE ÇAKIROĞLU

Özet:

The aims of this study were to investigate the topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of a science teacher working with gifted students, and to investigate the interaction of the teacher’s PCK components. Single case study methodology in qualitative nature was utilized, and the case was comprised of a middle school science teacher who worked in a private school including 7th grade gifted students. Three physics topics; work and energy, simple machines, and friction force were selected to gain rich information about the participant teacher’s teaching through in a long term observation. The data were collected through card-sorting activities, CoRe (Content Representation), semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and field notes. The study results showed that the teacher had multiple science teaching orientations about science teaching and learning. She had also strong knowledge of curriculum and used science curriculum effectively while designing and applying related topics. As regarding knowledge of learner, her teaching was affected by characteristics of gifted students leading the teacher to design and apply enrichment activities. Moreover, topic-specific instructional strategies were often employed while teaching related topics. The teacher’s knowledge of assessment included informal strategies such as questioning and monitoring, and formal assessment such as quizzes, multiple choices tests, and exams at the end of the unit. Finally, as regarding the interaction of teacher’s PCK components, the planning and practicing maps had different characteristics and they had topic-specific in nature. The teacher knowledge about the characteristics of gifted students and enrichment curriculum shaped and influenced her planning and teaching related topics.