Enhancing pedagogical content knowledge in a collaborative school-based professional development program for inquiry-based science teaching

This study reports on the trial of a school-based professional development process aimed at helping science teachers improve their inquiry-based science teaching Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 12, Issue 2, Article 3, p.2 (Dec., 2011) Yeung-Chung LEE Enhancing pedagogical content knowledge in a collaborative school-based professional development program for inquiry-based science teaching Copyright (C) 2011 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 12, Issue 2, Article 3 (Dec., 2011). All Rights Reserved. skills. This process focuses on developing the pedagogical content knowledge of teachers through peer collaboration, under the guidance of a teacher educator. A multi-method interpretive approach is employed to capture the development of such knowledge in the research process. The findings reveal both the potential for collaborative professional development in in-service teacher training, and the challenges faced by both primary school science teachers and teacher educators in promoting inquiry-based science teaching. The implications of the findings are discussed to develop a more in-depth understanding of the nature and processes of pedagogical content knowledge. Background to the Research A new General Studies (GS) curriculum integrating science and social studies was implemented in Hong Kong in 2004. The science component is to be taught through inquiry (CDC, 2002). However, research has identified the inadequacy of teachers’ content knowledge as one of the major issues facing primary science education in Hong Kong (So, Cheng, & Tsang 1998). Such inadequacy makes it difficult for primary teachers to adopt more interactive approaches to teaching science (Abell & Roth, 1992; Childs & McNicholl, 2007; Newton & Newton, 2001; Sanders, Borko, & Lockard, 1993). Teaching science through inquiry requires that teachers master not only the substantive, but also the syntactical structure of the discipline (Schwab, 1962). The latter comprises the processes essential for inquiry into scientific phenomena. Thus, teachers need to develop their own understanding of scientific inquiry before they can lead students to understand and apply these processes. Both these two types of knowledge constitute the subject matter knowledge (SMK) which is required by science teachers as described by Shulman (1987). Apart from this, Schulam also identified another form of teachers’ knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), , which “represents the blending of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular topics, problems, or issues are organized, represented, and adapted to the diverse interests and abilities of learners, and presented for instruction” (p. 8). Researchers have argued that such knowledge is contextual and specific to particular topics (Cochran et al., 1993; Shulman, 1987; Van Driel et al., 1998). Magnusson, et al. (1999) described PCK for science teaching as embodying five components: orientation to teaching science, Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 12, Issue 2, Article 3, p.3 (Dec., 2011) Yeung-Chung LEE Enhancing pedagogical content knowledge in a collaborative school-based professional development program for inquiry-based science teaching Copyright (C) 2011 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 12, Issue 2, Article 3 (Dec., 2011). All Rights Reserved. knowledge of students’ understanding of science, the science curriculum, assessment, and instructional strategies in the context of scientific inquiry. It involves an understanding of the contribution of inquiry-based instruction to learning science, students’ scientific reasoning, and the ways to guide them to construct substantive scientific ideas through formulating appropriate learning objectives and designing relevant inquiry-based activities and assessment tasks. According to Keys and Bryan (2000), inquiry-based instruction demands in-depth pedagogical content knowledge. As far as science teaching is concerned, inquiry-based teaching should aim not only at enhancing substantive knowledge, but also syntactical knowledge. This implies that PCK involves the blending of scientific content knowledge, the concepts of inquiry, and pedagogical skills to develop this knowledge and these concepts in students, while taking into account students’ abilities and interests. This attention to these students’ attributes is particularly noteworthy in light of the finding that children appear to be capable of much richer scientific thought than previously envisaged (Metz, 1995; Tytler and Peterson, 2004), although students’ alternative conceptions of particular topics still abound (Driver, et al., 1985; Osborne and Freyberg, 1985). School-based Professional Development Efforts As the above review shows, the development of school-based university-school collaborative efforts to articulate and develop teachers’ PCK and SMK for the design and implementation of inquiry-based instruction is a successful strategy. This study seeks to answer the following two further research questions. 1. To what extent can the process of collaborative school-based professional development advocated in this research help within-school communities of primary teachers to develop SMK and PCK for teaching science through inquiry? 2. What challenges do teachers and teacher educators encounter in applying this model within the school context? Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 12, Issue 2, Article 3, p.4 (Dec., 2011) Yeung-Chung LEE Enhancing pedagogical content knowledge in a collaborative school-based professional development program for inquiry-based science teaching Copyright (C) 2011 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 12, Issue 2, Article 3 (Dec., 2011). All Rights Reserved. Table 1: A tentative model of collaborative school-based professional development for GS teachers Teacher educator’s tasks