Secondary science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge from content representation (CoRe) on genetics

The results are presented with a thematic and cross-case analysis based on the PCK components (Stake, 2006). Individual cases of all the four teachers mentioned in table 1 were studied thoroughly before presenting the analysis.

Teachers’ knowledge of science

All the four teachers had good command on the topic “Genetics”. In the CoRe template, they showed their clear understanding on the concept of “Genetics” under several Big ideas (Loughran, 2006). For instance, Nilufar and Amina mentioned the importance of Mitosis with proper explanation in the template. Observation data also depicted that all the four teachers were able to explain the necessary scientific details in the classroom. For example, in a certain situation of Mr. Kashif’s classroom, a student asked, ‘Sir, does a cell divide continuously?’ The teacher replied, ‘No, it has a limitation. But sometimes cells can be divided without any limitation and Papiloma virus is responsible for that. Cancer can be occurred due to this unlimited division of cells.’ In spite of not belonging from biological science background Kashif’s knowledge on “Genetics” was equally praiseworthy like other three teachers because all of them were really good in explaining the scientific details of “Genetics” in the interview session as well. For instance, all the teachers explained the big ideas i.e. classification of cell division, importance of cell division in interview properly.

Teachers’ knowledge of goal

All the four teachers conducted their classes by considering the three learning objectives or instructional goals⁵ of the chapter on “Genetics” which they properly mentioned on the CoRe template as well. The teachers were observed to explain those before discussing any Big idea. For instance, before talking about the importance of cell division, all the teachers explained the significance of understanding this topic in their own way which led them to capture the learners’ attention. In interviews, all the teachers expressed that discussing goals of a particular chapter gave direction to their lessons. According to Amina, students have so many curiosities in this adolescence period of their lives; this chapter helps the students to meet their curiosities on growth of body and birth of students...the students will be able to know about formation of body parts after this chapter.

Although the teachers had enough idea about the instructional goals, they were not properly aware about the broader goal on achieving scientific literacy mentioned in the curriculum (NCTB, 2011). Observation data depicted the inefficiency of teachers in teaching for scientific literacy where they could not meet the requirements in full extent. For example, Kashif met only 6 facts (out of 12) of teaching for scientific literacy. Three out of four teachers told in the interview that they were not familiar with the broader goal of secondary science education and not even with the term “Scientific Literacy” yet they were interested in achieving instructional goals of the chapter.

Teachers’ knowledge of students’ learning

Three out of four teachers had showed basic knowledge of students’ learning. Data from CoRe template showed that the teachers acquired the knowledge of students through classroom experience, especially by questioning. This data is consistent with classroom observation data where the teachers were found to be involved in doing different activities and communicating with students to understand the nature of misconceptions and prior knowledge the students actually possessed. The teachers were also observed to act spontaneously by understanding students’ capability and interest. For example, in need of a group work in conducting a lesson “Mitosis”, teacher Nilufar preferred small groups of three students by knowing the potentiality of each individuals She stated, ‘I often let the students to draw pictures on the board. Sometimes give them the scope to make any chart or model, pair work, group work and debates which allow me to know them better’. Interview sessions also revealed that the teachers could comprehend students’ level of interest and understanding on a particular topic by observing their facial expression and ways of response.

In contrary, another teacher, Marium, was observed to have lack of enthusiasm to understand students’ learning which probably made her less active in the class. While asked about her engagement in knowing her students, she stated, ‘I try but have nothing to do if the students do not understand! Now I do not bother so much about them since I am extremely disturbed with their inattentive nature in the classroom’. She thus made responsible to the students for gradually losing her interest regarding their learning.

Teachers’ knowledge of curriculum

A tendency to just follow the textbook by not even looking into the curriculum was found from the teachers. Data revealed the teachers did not read the latest national curriculum published on 2011 which is why they could not fill in the section on knowledge of curriculum on the CoRe. Due to such gap of knowledge they could not follow the instructions given in the curriculum. For example, it was instructed in the curriculum to split the chapter on “Genetics” into nine periods (NCTB, 2011), whereas all the teachers completed the chapter within four periods. In interviews, all the four teachers admitted their limitations in curriculum knowledge. Amina stated, ‘I have not seen the new curriculum yet and could not get the chance to know the teaching-learning instructions related to the topic Genetics’. The teachers therefore followed their own strategies to conduct the classes.

Teachers’ knowledge of teaching “Genetics”

Three out of four teachers believed on applying traditional teaching approach and were not able to use appropriate teaching-learning methods properly. They mentioned in the CoRe template that, since they had no enough time to take preparation for other teaching-learning methods, they usually relied on lecture method to conduct the classes on Genetics. The teachers were also observed to not being comfortable in applying various effective teaching strategies for science classes, though Kashif and Nilufar tried to use demonstration method. On the other hand, Amina admitted the reasons behind choosing lecture method in her interview, she affirmed:

The teachers had the tendency to provide lecture even while demonstrating anything rather inspiring the students to ask questions or discuss among themselves. Overall, data indicated that heavy work load deprived the teachers to enrich this category of knowledge. It is noteworthy that, all of the teachers except Marium were concern about giving motivation before starting the class, repeating previous lesson, giving feedback to students, using real life examples and focusing on body language.

Teachers’ knowledge of assessment

All the four teachers were not clear about ‘what’ and ‘how’ to assess the students. In the CoRe template the teachers expressed that they preferred asking random questions to assess the learners. This is consistent with the observed data where the teachers were found to ask knowledge based questions avoiding any sorts of written tasks i.e. multiple choice questions, matching etc. in the classroom. For instance, Amina asked ‘What is cell division? How many types of cell division are there?’ Such questions can be answered by recalling and the teachers possessed the tendency to ask this type of questions rather focusing on comprehensive and analytical questioning. In interviews, three out of four teachers expressed their interest on conducting group work and written task during formative assessment but due to time limitations they could not arrange those. Consequently, exercising knowledge based questions for assessing students became more preferable among the teachers since it demands lesser time comparatively.

Teachers’ knowledge of teaching aids

The teachers basically had the tendency to go with traditional teaching aids like chalk, board and textbook due to time, money and infrastructural constraints. In the CoRe template, some specific teaching aids i.e. model of cell division, poster for drawing, relevant photographs, charts etc were mentioned by the teachers which they thought that should be used in conducting classes on “Genetics” for the better understanding of students. But it was observed that only Kashif and Nilufar used some of the mentioned teaching aids whereas rest of the two teachers used chalk, board and textbook only to conduct the classes. Nilufar noted that,

Only Kashif was observed to use some animated video clips in the classroom. He affirmed in the interview, ‘I wanted to ensure sustainable knowledge of students, which is why I used video clips. I believe, it helps the students to understand the abstract ideas of genetics properly.’ Amina and Nilufar also shared their interest to demonstrate some video materials to students but due to financial problems and infrastructure of the school they could not do so.

⁵The goals were based on three specific topic; a) classification of cell division, b) the growth of living being through cell division and c) the role of cell division in maintaining the characteristics by genetics (NCTB, 2011).

Teachers’ pseudo name	Name of the pseudo school	Type of school	Last Educational degree
Ms. Amina	Rokeya Secondary School	Higher achievement in SSC examination 2012	M.Sc in Zoology Masters in Education
Ms. Marium	Laboratory School and College	Lower achievement in SSC examination 2012	M.Sc in Zoology
Ms. Nilufar	Modern Girls High School	Higher achievement in SSC examination 2012	M.Sc in Zoology
Mr. Kashif	Model Secondary School	Lower achievement in SSC examination 2012	M.Sc in Mathematics Masters in Education