1. Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) for Elementary Teachers
NextGen STEM Teacher Preparation in WA State
2019 PCK Working Group

2. What is pck all about?
PCK is how you represent subject matter to students
PCK is ideas about students’ conceptions and misconceptions
PCK is understanding topic-specific learning difficulties students may have
Shulman, 1986

3. Pck components for teaching elementary science (smith, 2000)
Knowledge of children’s ideas and the usual barriers they encounter in understanding conceptual content
Knowledge of strategies that facilitate learning for girls, minorities, ELLs, and students with special needs
Understanding of the role of representations, examples, and metaphors in facilitating children’s understanding
Knowledge of teachers’ orientations toward teaching science (syntactical knowledge)

4. Pck from a constructivist perspective (Cochran et al, 1993)
Knowledge of students
Knowledge of environmental contexts
Knowledge of pedagogy
Knowledge of subject matter

5. Pck for teaching preservice teachers (smith, 2000)
Knowledge of students’ experiences as science learners
Students’ assumptions about scientists and their work
Students’ ideas about what learning to teach science ought to involve

6. PCK has a hierarchy, for example in science
1. Science PCK
2. Specific discipline PCK (e.g. – physics v. chemistry)
3. Specific topic within a discipline PCK (e.g. – electric circuits)

7. But what about elementary teachers pck?
Elementary teachers work with specific topic PCK
Elementary teachers rarely develop specific discipline PCK
Elementary teachers tend to have limited knowledge in both science content knowledge and science PCK
Appleton, 2008

8. Elementary teachers’ foundation for pck
1. Substantive content knowledge
Children’s naïve ideas
Teaching strategies
Curriculum repertoire
Content representation
2. Syntactical content knowledge
Orientation to teaching science/technology/engineering/math
3. STEM experiences
Views of science, technology, engineering, math
Views of STEM learners
Views of STEM teaching

9. Two levels of PCK
1. Espoused/planned PCK (the type of knowledge needed for planning instruction)
2. Enacted PCK (what a teacher does in the classroom in response to the students’ learning needs)

10. Resources
Appleton, K. (2008). Developing science pedagogical content knowledge through mentoring elementary teachers. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 19,
Cochran, K. F., DeRuiter, J. A., & King, R. A. (1993). Pedagogical content knowing: An integrative model for teacher preparation. Journal of teacher Education, 44(4),
Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational researcher, 15(2), 4-14.
Smith, D. C. (2000). Content and pedagogical content knowledge for elementary science teacher educators: Knowing our students. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 11(1),