Linking personal and professional knowledge of teaching practice through narrative inquiry

Introduction: Although there is ambiguity about the elements of teacher knowledge, all researchers accept that being able to anticipate what errors can be made, the reasons for and the strategies to overcome these errors, in short, the knowledge of students is important for student achievement. In this study, knowledge of students refers to being aware of students’ possible errors and underlying reasons for these errors and knowing how to overcome these errors. Based on this consideration, the purpose of this study is to investigate pre-service elementary teachers’ knowledge of students on the subtraction topic. Methods: Considering the purpose, the data were collected from 118 pre-service elementary teachers who were enrolled in a four-year Elementary Teacher Education program via a task-based questionnaire related to the topic of subtraction and semi-structured interviews following the questionnaire. The task-based questionnaire included three completed incorrect subtraction tasks and was prepared considering the related literature and the elementary school mathematics curriculum of Turkey. Each task in the questionnaire contained a different type of error. The pre-service elementary teachers’ answers to the task-based questionnaire were categorized as correct, partially correct, wrong, or no answer by means of categorical analysis. The pre-service elementary teachers who gave correct and partially correct answers to the tasks were asked to participate in the second part of the study to learn their possible strategies to overcome the errors made in the tasks. Results: As a result of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the pre-service elementary teachers’ responses, it was found that their knowledge of students for subtraction is limited. Specifically, although the pre-service elementary teachers were partially able to identify the errors in the first and second task, they were not able to identify the error in the third task. Furthermore, they were better able to determine a more commonly occurring subtraction error compared to the uncommon ones. The pre-service elementary teachers could not identify the underlying reasons that led the students to the errors. They could not explain what conceptual knowledge related to the topic of subtraction the student lacked that resulted in the errors. As the pre-service teachers did not attain these reasons, they were not able to provide strategies to overcome these errors different than restating the rules or procedures to overcome students’ errors. Discussion: Only being able to identify the errors is not enough to make the instruction effective. Teachers also need to know and provide a rationale for why the errors happen and how to overcome them (Even & Tirosh, 1995). Contrary to this statement, the pre-service elementary teachers in this study could not attempt to understand the students’ thinking or could not explain the reasons behind students’ errors with the notion of subtraction. Son (2013) emphasizes that pre-service teachers tend to explain the reasons for students’ errors as procedural. Similar to this emphasis, the pre-service teachers identified the errors as resulting from not applying procedures carefully or not enough knowing algorithms to find correct solutions. However, without addressing the reasons or focusing on procedures does not promote students’ understanding of the related topic (An, Kulm, & Wu, 2004). The pre-service teachers’ difficulties in identifying the possible conceptual reasons may result from deficits in knowledge of students (Fennema & Franke, 1992; Ball et al., 2008). Limitations: The findings were limited with the responses of the pre-service elementary teachers participating in this study. Moreover, the pre-service elementary teachers’ knowledge of students was investigated within the scope of subtraction. Conclusions: Although the pre-service elementary teachers could identify students’ errors on subtraction, they had difficulty in identifying the reasons and suggesting strategies to overcome the errors. Therefore, it can be concluded that the pre-service teachers’ knowledge of students for the topic of subtraction is limited. An implication of this is that teacher educators need to include error-analysis tasks to help pre-service teachers be aware of the importance of their knowledge of students.

This article is a part of research developed through PNPD/Capes, in Unesp-Presidente Prudente. The objective of that research was to understand the formative processes and cultural, school and non-school practices, which are producing the professional knowledge of elementary school teachers – initial and final years – as a condition for the professional teaching practice in the perspective of a qualified public school. Our objective here is to understand the role assigned by these narrating teachers to the professional knowledge built from school education to be a teacher and the relationship they establish with the knowledge of experience, involved in the production of their professional teaching knowledge from the daily coexistence with " their teachers”, those who at various times present themselves as professional models in their way of acting as professional teachers within the school; but also through the cultural transits experienced in the course of life as places of learning. It is inscribed in the field of narrative research, having used the life stories of six teachers as a data production device and comprehensive analysis as an interpretive device. From the analysis of the narratives we can infer that the personal dimension, the person of the teacher appears as a kind of “catalyst” of the experiences suffered in the different spaces and times of school education and in the different transits. The teacher's professional training process takes place simultaneously in the individual and collective dimensions, combining experiences and memories that constitute their professional identity and the foundation of their teaching practices.

Objectives Intellectual humility refers to a tendency to recognize and accept that one’s personal beliefs or knowledge may be fallible and limited. The purpose of this study is to examine whether preschool teachers’ intellectual humility predicts self-development needs and teamwork, which in turn, predict professional knowledge. In other words, the current study investigates the dual mediating effects of self-development needs and teamwork in the relationship between intellectual humility and professional knowledge in preschool teachers. Methods A total of 206 teachers across 32 preschools participated in this study. The participating teachers completed questionnaires on intellectual humility, self-development needs, teamwork, and professional knowledge. SPSS 25.0 was used to test the mediating effect of self-development needs and teamwork on the relationship between intellectual humility and professional knowledge in teachers. In addition, PROCESS macro version 3.4 (Hayes, 2017) was used to confirm the indirect effect. Results The teachers’ intellectual humility predicts professional knowledge via self-development needs and teamwork. In other words, teachers who acknowledge their own intellectual limits and are open to new experiences and learning opportunities have a higher level of professional knowledge in teaching, and this relation is mediated by both self-development needs and teamwork. The bootstrapping results also suggest that the indirect effect is statistically significant. Conclusion This study is the first to introduce and apply a new concept of intellectual humility in a Korean sample. By showing the relationship between intellectual humility, self-development needs, teacher teamwork, and professional knowledge, the study highlights the importance of intellectual virtue in preschool teachers. Keywords: intellectual humility, self-development needs, teacher teamwork, professional knowledge

هدفت الدراسة إلى استقصاء فعالية تخطيط الدرس في تنمية المعرفة البيداغوجية للمحتوى الرياضي لدى الطلبة/المعلمين. اهتم الباحثون في العقدين الأخيرين بمعرفة المعلم المهنية، ومن هنا ظهر الاهتمام بالمعرفة البيداغوجية للمحتوى کمکون أساسي لمعرفة المعلم. المعرفة البيداغوجية للمحتوى الرياضي هي مزيج من معرفة المعلمين العميقة لمحتوى الرياضيات، ومعرفتهم لخصائص المتعلمين فيما يتعلق بالمحتوى الرياضي، ومعرفتهم لأصول التدريس الضرورية لمساعدة المتعلمين على تعلم المحتوى الرياضي. في الدراسة الحالية تم مطالبة الطلبة المعلمين بتحضير سبعة دروس وفقا لنموذج مقترح لتخطيط الدرس. شارک في الدراسة ٣٠ طالبا معلما من طلاب الفرقة الثالثة شعبة الرياضيات. تم استخدام المنهج شبه التجريبي في إعداد أدوات المعالجة التجريبية للدراسة وتطبيقها باستخدام تصميم المجموعة الواحدة ذات القياس القبلي البعدي. تم جمع البيانات من خلال مقياس المعرفة البيداغوجية للمحتوى الرياضي واختبار المعرفة الرياضية اللازمة لتدريس الجبر وتحليل تخطيط درس رياضيات. أظهرت نتائج الدراسة فعالية تخطيط الدرس في تنمية المعرفة البيداغوجية للمحتوى الرياضي لدى الطلبة/المعلمين. وفي ضوء نتائج الدراسة، تم تقديم التوصيات المناسبة. This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of lesson plan in the development of mathematical pedagogical content knowledge of students / teachers. In the last two decades, researchers interested in the professional knowledge of teachers, therefore pedagogical content knowledge became an essential ingredient for the teacher's knowledge. Mathematical pedagogical content knowledge is a combination of teachers’ deep knowledge of math content, their knowledge of the characteristics of learners in respect of the content, and their knowledge of pedagogy. In the current study, students/teachers were required to prepare seven lesson plans according to a suggested model. The study group consisted of 30 pre-service math teachers. The quasi-experimental approach was used in the preparation of the experimental treatment study tools and applied using the design of one group with pre and post test. Data were collected through the mathematical pedagogical content knowledge questionnaire, mathematical knowledge test, and analysis of lesson plans. Study results showed the effectiveness of lesson plan in the development of mathematical pedagogical content knowledge of students / teachers. In light of the results of the study, appropriate recommendations were presented.

In this article, we present our reflections on some of the interactions between Mathematical Modeling and the discussions concerning the professional knowledge of teachers. These interactions, as proposed through the continuing education of early years teachers, show that coordination between these two fields is beneficial to the training of educators, both facilitating the learning of mathematical content and contributing in various ways to the development of skills used to investigate and understand the role mathematics plays in society. Furthermore, the article highlights how these discussions have proved valuable in allowing teachers to understand the importance of possessing specialized content knowledge for teaching mathematics, as posited in the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching model, developed by Ball, Thames and Phelps (2008).

An established tool for collating secondary teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (Loughran's CoRe) has been adapted for use by tertiary educators. Chemistry lecturers with a range of levels of experience were invited to participate in workshops through which the tool was piloted, refined and applied. We now present this refined tool for the tertiary teaching community to consider adopting. The teaching approaches of over 80 workshop participants were collected using the tool in a broad survey of tertiary chemistry teaching strategies. Participation in the workshops led to a significant gain in personal PCK for some individuals. Analysis of responses received in the workshops revealed that the consensus model of secondary teacher professional knowledge and skill is also applicable to the tertiary level, and that the CoRe is a useful way to gain insight into the knowledge bases and topic-specific professional knowledge of tertiary chemistry teachers. The data were aggregated and coded inductively to distil the types of strategies commonly found to be useful for teaching particular tertiary chemistry topics. This resulted in collation of over 300 teaching strategies for 19 different chemistry topics, representing significant topic-specific professional knowledge of tertiary practitioners. To share and sustain this collection of teaching strategies, a website was built that is searchable by either chemistry topic or by type of teaching strategy, making it immediately useful to practitioners. Usage analytics data for the website confirm that many users have accessed the resource, showing that this is a practical way to transfer information between chemistry educators.

This study describes and analyses how coteaching affected undergraduate music education preservice teachers (PSTs). During an 8-week school placement, coteaching was used as a means of creating a reciprocal professional learning arrangement involving PSTs and primary school teachers. The theoretical framework draws on the Russian concept of obuchenie, which is a dialectical process of mutual adaptation between student and teacher. Music education PST participated as subject expert/pedagogy novice, while generalist classroom teacher occupied the role of pedagogy expert/music novice. Findings relate to the acquisition of four aspects of teacher professional agency, subject or content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, curricular knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge. A thematic analysis was undertaken using data from interviews, PST reflective journals, observations, lesson plans, and researcher field-notes. In comparison with the traditional school placement, there was a radical improvement in the development of professional agency amongst the coteaching cohort.

This study seeks to understand the development of teacher professional knowledge about models and modeling of a Chemistry Education associate professor, experienced and specialized in modeling-based teaching from a longitudinal socio-historical perspective. To do so, we analyzed her statements about her life history in terms of school and academic education, as well as professional practices for the last 18 years. Data were constructed from the transcription of those statements and interpreted according to theoretical-methodological procedures based on both a microgenetic analysis, promoting the decontextualization of contexts, and a macrogenetic analysis, from the recontextualization of contexts. This made it possible to trace her experiences from the student context at the secondary school to the experiences as university professor about to teach a course on models and modeling to a class of future teachers. The data analysis showed that, in her teaching history, various educational situations and contexts involving modeling-based teaching influenced her teacher professional knowledge about models and modeling, as well as how some turning points influenced and took part of the development of such knowledge. This study favors an understanding of the constitution of the subject (the associate professor) as it allows entering into her life contexts in which developmental paths of her teacher professional knowledge were identified and characterized. Furthermore, it contributes to the understanding of how science teachers can develop such knowledge from a longitudinal socio-historical perspective, which may have implications for teachers education.

ELTeachis an online professional development program consisting of two courses, English‐for‐Teaching and Professional Knowledge for English Language Teaching (ELT). Each course includes a coordinated assessment leading to a score report and certificate for individual teachers. Developed with reference to international and national teaching standards, and drawing on the resources of various national English‐language curricula and teaching materials, the program is designed to ensure that teachers have the functional classroom English language and the professional knowledge to support the implementation of the English‐language curricula they are expected to teach. In this document, we outline the design and development process followed in creating the twoELTeachassessments—the Test of English‐for‐Teaching (TEFT™) and the Test of Professional Knowledge (TPK™). The paper is organized into the following sections: (a) the purposes and intended uses for test scores/certificates, (b) the target populations, (c) the construct definitions, (d) the program frameworks and domain descriptions, (e) the test designs, (f) the scoring systems, and (g) directions for research in support of the program.

This study aims to analyze which teaching knowledge pieces on argumentation are mobilized by pre-service chemistry teachers in their teaching portfolio when those pre-service teachers have experienced a course in which teaching argumentation was explicit; the study also aims to evaluate the contributions of using the portfolio in forming future teachers’ knowledge on argumentation; lastly, what those contributions would be. A set of a priori categories and also categories emerging from our data were used to analyze the pre-service teachers’ portfolios. The results show that the pre-service teachers demonstrated teaching knowledge related to logical-structural aspects of argumentation, teaching strategies, and materials that support argumentation in the classroom. Moreover, they expressed reflective teaching knowledge on those elements, which all support the argumentation. The conclusions of this study suggest the expression of all this knowledge can be related to the combination of building portfolios with the explicit context of teaching training programmes throughout the entire course. In addition to the fact that the portfolios have had the potential to map argumentative teaching knowledge, they also offered support to the expression and development of knowledge on this topic.

Professional knowledge is an important source of science teachers' actions in the classroom (e.g., personal professional content knowledge [pedagogical content knowledge, PCK] is the source of enacted PCK in the refined consensus model [RCM] for PCK). However, the evidence for this claim is ambiguous at best. This study applied a cross‐lagged panel design to examine the relationship between professional knowledge and actions in one particular instructional situation: explaining physics. Pre‐ and post a field experience (one semester), 47 preservice physics teachers from four different universities were tested for their content knowledge (CK), PCK, pedagogical knowledge (PK), and action‐related skills in explaining physics. The study showed that joint professional knowledge (the weighted sum of CK, PCK, and PK scores) at the beginning of the field experience impacted the development of explaining skills during the field experience (β= .38**). We interpret this as a particular relationship between professional knowledge and science teachers' action‐related skills (enacted PCK): professional knowledge is necessary for the development of explaining skills. That is evidence that personal PCK affects enacted PCK. In addition, field experiences are often supposed to bridge the theory‐practice gap by transforming professional knowledge into instructional practice. Our results suggest that for field experiences to be effective, preservice teachers should start with profound professional knowledge.

Numerous frameworks have been developed to describe and assess the pedagogical content knowledge of mathematics teachers. The Knowledge Quartet Framework (KQ), with its focus on professional knowledge for mathematics teaching, has received extensive attention and acknowledgment in various studies. This systematic literature review assessed the growth, use, and application of the KQ in mathematics education research. An analysis of 36 peer-reviewed articles showed that the KQ, initially rooted in UK primary mathematics novice teaching practices, has since gained global prominence. Though originally designed for primary education, applications of KQ span from primary to higher education settings, shedding light on relationships between teacher proficiency, content knowledge, and student performance. Furthermore, while the KQ was primarily associated with mathematics teaching, recent trends have seen its application in disciplines ranging from science to physical education. Key areas of KQ application include reflection on practice, coding and observing classroom practices, understanding the transition of pre-service and novice teachers to experienced classroom teachers, lesson planning, and alignment with other educational frameworks. The review highlights the KQ’s role in enhancing teaching practices across various educational levels, its application in diverse research methodologies, and its expanding scope beyond mathematics education.

This paper reports on a study which was designed to examine how CoRes (Content Representations) and PaP-eRs (Pedagogical and Professional-experience Repertoires) might impact the practice of science teachers by considering how they might value (or not) pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as part of their professional knowledge. The paper is based on a 2 year longitudinal study that used CoRes and PaP-eRs as a form of intervention with a group of teachers (n = 6) to determine how they interpreted, used and developed their understanding of PCK over time. The study concluded that the participating teachers developed rich understandings of their professional knowledge of science teaching and were of the view that CoRes and PaP-eRs were significant in shaping that development. As a consequence, the study also validates the use of CoRes and PaP-eRs as a meaningful methodology for examining science teachers’ PCK.

The technological revolution has changed the required knowledge and skills of teachers in facilitating the development of students’ 21st-century skills. In light of this, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) has been defined as a useful conceptual framework to help define the knowledge base needed for effective technology integration into classroom practices. However, generally, teacher professional education programs do not help teacher candidates develop TPACK. From this standpoint, the purpose of the study was to better understand the nature of pre-service English teachers’ TPACK over the professional development program named Pre-Service Teacher Professional Education (TPE) or Pendidikan Profesi Guru (PPG) Prajabatan. A survey was applied to examine 30 EFL pre-service teachers’ TPACK using self-report as the data source. The self-report was adopted from Schmid et al. (2020), and it consists of 28 items of the seven TPACK components. The results demonstrated that EFL pre-service teachers see the value of technology for teaching English. They highly perceived their TPACK competencies, especially for the TK construct (M=4.05) and the TPACK construct (M=4.08). They need more guidance on how to effectively integrate technology though. Thus, teacher professional education programs should redesign various methods of courses to provide more opportunities for pre-service English teachers to teach with technology since experiences had the most effect on beliefs.

One way of looking at the relationship between educational theory and the professional knowledge of teachers is to see the former as a set of ideas about some aspect of education which has been constructed within a specialised academic discipline by experts who have mastered its particular standards of inquiry. The knowledge and understanding conveyed by such a theory can then be applied by teachers in learning to teach effectively. Professional knowledge, on this view of educational theory, consists of a theoretical understanding of ideas about various aspects of education drawn from disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, sociology and history, plus ‘knowing how’ to apply them in particular practical situations.