Jörg Großschedl

Content-Related Knowledge of Biology Teachers from Secondary Schools: Structure and learning opportunities

Teachers’ content-related knowledge is a key factor influencing the learning progress of students. Different models of content-related knowledge have been proposed by educational researchers; most of them take into account three categories: content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular knowledge. As there is no consensus about the empirical separability (i.e. empirical structure) of content-related knowledge yet, a total of 134 biology teachers from secondary schools completed three tests which were to capture each of the three categories of content-related knowledge. The empirical structure of content-related knowledge was analyzed by Rasch analysis, which suggests content-related knowledge to be composed of (1) content knowledge, (2) pedagogical content knowledge, and (3) curricular knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge and curricular knowledge are highly related (rlatentu2009=u2009.70). The latent correlations between content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (rlatentu2009=u2009.48)—and curricular knowledge, respectively (rlatentu2009=u2009.35)—are moderate to low (all psu2009<u2009.001). Beyond the empirical structure of content-related knowledge, different learning opportunities for teachers were investigated with regard to their relationship to content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular knowledge acquisition. Our results show that an in-depth training in teacher education, professional development, and teacher self-study are positively related to particular categories of content-related knowledge. Furthermore, our results indicate that teaching experience is negatively related to curricular knowledge, compared to no significant relationship with content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.

Preservice Teachers’ Professional Knowledge and Its Relation to Academic Self-Concept

We investigated the factorial structure of preservice teachers’ academic self-concept with regard to three domains of professional knowledge (content knowledge [CK], pedagogical content knowledge [PCK], and pedagogical/psychological knowledge [PPK]). We also analyzed the relation between preservice teachers’ academic self-concept and their professional knowledge. The sample consisted of N = 631 German preservice secondary teachers in biology and physics. To analyze the factorial structure of the academic self-concept, we applied confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and compared different models of complexity. Results confirmed that preservice teachers’ academic self-concept is empirically separable into CK, PCK, and PPK. Furthermore, the self-concept scales were positively related to the corresponding test scores in the professional knowledge domains. Our results revealed that preservice teachers’ academic self-concept is differentiated at a very early state of teacher education and reflects CK, PCK, and PPK performance. Hence, self-concept measures seem to provide an alternative means to assess preservice teachers’ professional knowledge in comparison with traditional performance measures.

Using doubly latent multilevel analysis to elucidate relationships between science teachers’ professional knowledge and students’ performance

ABSTRACT Teachers make a difference for the outcome of their students in science classrooms. One focus in this context lies on teachers’ professional knowledge. We describe this knowledge according to three domains, namely (1) content knowledge (CK), (2) pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and (3) curricular knowledge (CuK). We hypothesise a positive relationship between these three domains and students’ performance in science. Students’ science performance was conceptualised by system thinking performance in the context of biology teaching. In order to test our hypothesis, we examined the relationship between the knowledge triplet CK, PCK, and CuK and students’ performance. 48 biology teachers and their students (Nu2009=u20091036) participated in this study. Teachers’ content-related professional knowledge and students’ performance were measured by paper-and-pencil tests. Moreover, we used concept maps to further assess students’ performance. By specifying doubly latent models, we found a significant positive relationship between biology teachers’ PCK and students’ performance. On the contrary, the results reveal no relationship between CK and CuK and students’ performance. These findings are discussed in respect to modelling the interrelationship of teachers’ content-related professional knowledge and students’ learning in science, as well as concerning their relevance for further research and teacher education programmes.

Opportunities to Learn for Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Enthusiasm

The aim of this study was to identify opportunities to learn for teachers’ motivational orientations. Motivational orientations are relevant characteristics of psychological functioning, which are important for the behavior of a teacher and mandatory for effective teaching. We focus on three domains: self-efficacy, subject-specific enthusiasm, and enthusiasm for teaching the subject. Self-efficacy covers the belief of an individual that he or she is capable of performing required behaviors to produce a desired outcome. Teacher enthusiasm is an affective teacher orientation that is related to a specific subject and to teaching this specific subject. Different opportunities to learn are considered for teachers’ motivational orientations. Since teacher education particularly focuses on the acquisition of professional knowledge, we added a further exploratory focus to the study and investigated the relationships between motivational orientations and professional knowledge (content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge). 134 biology teachers participated in the study. The results reveal that teacher education at university, the attendance in professional development courses, and self-study provide opportunities to learn for self-efficacy and enthusiasm for teaching the subject. Moreover, we found self-efficacy and subject-specific enthusiasm to be positively related to pedagogical content knowledge.