The relations between disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge and the length of teaching experience of biology and geography teachers

Abstract

Concept mapping was used to tap the conceptual disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge of seven biology and six geography teachers with short or long teaching experience. Based on five knowledge structure dimensions, the results were that (1) the disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge of teachers of both biology and geography is quite unsatisfactory; (2) the two types of knowledge did not improve with experience and the latter slightly deteriorated; and (3) the teachers mastered their disciplinary knowledge better than their pedagogical knowledge. The results are discussed in relation to the nature of the instructional activities and the different status of the disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge in teaching. Copyright © 1990 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company