The Article

Assistant Professor Deborah C. Smith describes and discusses, in this book chapter, examples of how pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is used in the planning and teaching of elementary science. Smith also describes some ways in which PCK contributes to more effective science teaching and some barriers to its successful use in elementary science lessons.

Discussion

Smith defines one aspect of PCK as “knowledge of examples, analogies, and representations drawn from scientific content, of two kinds: substantive knowledge and syntactic knowledge.”  Substantive knowledge refers to the concepts, principles and laws of a particular area of science. For example, understanding wave models of light would be substantive knowledge about light and its behavior. Syntactical knowledge refers to understanding current norms that scientists hold acceptable in a particular area of science.  A second aspect of PCK includes knowledge about how to design teaching and classroom activities so as to facilitate children’s understanding of a scientific topic. In the chapter, Smith provides a number of examples of her uses of PCK, and how it has changed and grown in her teaching. She also describes her work with experienced and preservice teachers. In one example, Smith describes how a 3^rd grade teacher was able to use PCK to construct new teaching strategies in lessons about light and shadow. She knew students’ naive ideas about the topic (another aspect of PCK), such as believing that their shadows emanated from their bodies. However, she believed that her students would not have those ideas. In the first lesson, she quickly determined that some of her students did hold those misconceptions, and through her “PCK of teaching strategies for addressing children’s different naive ideas” was able to alter her teaching to successfully address the problem.  Ultimately, Smith provides the various examples in an effort to allow readers “to get inside the teachers’ thinking, planning, and classroom practices, and to examine how teachers’ PCK can affect the opportunities that children encounter in science lessons.”

What It Means To You

The examples Smith describes raise issues about possibilities for changing elementary science teaching and learning. Through teachers’ construction of more sophisticated views of children’s ideas and learning, curriculum activities and teaching strategies, classrooms have a greater chance of creating effective science instruction. What kinds of PCK do teachers in your district use in their science teaching?

For More Information

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