Developing Educative Materials to Support Middle-School Science Teachers’ PCK for Argumentation: Comparing Multimedia to Text-Based Supports

Abstract

Science teachers need support in developing pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) around science practices such as argumentation. Educative curriculum materials (ECMs) have great potential as a tool to support teachers’ PCK development, particularly for in-service teachers. In this chapter, we describe an intervention in which we developed and researched web-based educative curriculum materials focused on supporting teachers’ PCK of argumentation. Two different versions of the materials—one with text-based educative supports and one with text-based supports plus multimedia elements—were tested with a total of 90 middle-school science teachers. Participants completed pre- and post-surveys designed to measure their PCK of argumentation. In addition, back-end data was collected on teachers’ use of the web-based materials. Findings indicated that teachers’ PCK did increase from pre to post, although there was no significant difference between the two versions of the curriculum. Teachers’ use of the materials varied widely. Our findings suggest that educative curriculum materials are a promising avenue for supporting teacher PCK. Future efforts should take into consideration teachers’ use patterns in order to increase the likelihood that teachers will use and benefit from educative elements.