An investigation of elementary teachers' pedagogical content knowledge for socioscientific argumentation: The effect of a learning and teaching experience

The aim of this study was to determine how a learning and teaching experience, which related to socioscientific argumentation and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), changed elementary teachers' views of teaching with socioscientific argumentation, as well as the change in their PCK and instructional practices. Five teachers studying for the classroom-teaching master's degree program of a foundation university in Turkey were included in the study, which lasted for a total of 10 weeks. Interviews to determine the PCK of these elementary teachers were first conducted, and their instructional practices were observed. Then, teachers attended a course related to socioscientific argumentation and PCK. Finally, PCK interviews were conducted for a second time with all the teachers and their instructional practices were observed again. The qualitative data collected from the study were analyzed by inductive content analysis, based on the constant comparative method. Classroom observations were evaluated with an analytical evaluation rubric. The results revealed that the learning and teaching experience undergone by the participating teachers improved the following components of their PCK: orientations (OTS), students' understanding (KSU), instructional strategies (KISR), and knowledge of assessment (KAS). After the course, strong interactions occurred among all the components, with the exceptions of knowledge of curriculum and knowledge of assessment. Furthermore, teacher efficacy, which is an effective element of PCK, is embedded in the components of KSU and KISR of the PCK for socioscientific argumentation. Therefore, it was concluded that the PCK for socioscientific argumentation of the participating elementary teachers improved while both learning and teaching.