Is Topic-Specific PCK Unique to Teachers?

Abstract

Pedagogical content knowledge, PCK, is well established in the education research community. There is general consensus that PCK is knowledge unique to teachers and different from but supported by content knowledge, CK. This study examines the performance of graduate teaching assistants (chemistry subject matter specialists) in relation to teachers on two tests, one on CK and a second to measure PCK in organic chemistry. In the CK test, the mean performance of both groups was high and at about the same level, but the two groups performed differently in some subtopics. There was differential performance in the PCK test where the chemists were superior at describing the use of a variety of structural representations of pentane for teaching and showed unanticipated competence in the selection and sequencing of big ideas for teaching. However, they were not proficient in recognising and confronting misconceptions or suggesting conceptual teaching strategies, showing that these abilities seem to be better developed in teachers.