Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Didactic Model in natural sciences. The case of kindergarten novel teachers

Abstract

This article presents the preliminary results of a research study carried out as part of the research Project “Pedagogical Content Knowledge construction in experienced and novel professors at Northeast National University. Multiple case study”. In this report we analize the dimensions of this construct by means of the methodological strategy of case studies (Stake, 2007; Neiman y Quaranta, 2006; Martínez Sánchez,2000). It is understood that Professors’ Professional Knowledge (PPK or CPD in Spanish) consists of various components; one of them is Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) according to Reynolds (1992). Research on Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Marcelo, 2006) refer to studies in which the specific object of analysis professors’ knowledge of the disciplinary content and how this knowledge is turned into teachable knowledge (Shulman, 1987) to make it comprehensible for the students, and how this is reconstructed by means of analysis and reflection processes on the professors’ practice (Schön, 1983). We think of Pedagogical Content Knowledge as a frame that contributes to understanding the role of the different components of the didactic model and its links when analyzing the professors’ practices. For this study, we used the didactic model proposed by Estany & Izquierdo (2001), constituted by epistemological, psychological, socio-pedagogical foundations, didactic principles and elements, namely: purpose, contents, communication and organization. In order to explore the didactic models and their relations with the dimensions of the PCK, we selected 4 Early Education beginning professors, with just one year of teaching experience. As novel teachers have to teach and learn how to teach, develop a proper knowledge and professional competence in a short period of time, that of the transition from student to professor (Feiman, 2001 b; Marcelo,1999 a; Esteve,1997; Veenman,1984); we decided to work – in this preliminary studywith the format of conjectural script (Bombini, 2006; Bombini & Labeur,2013) as one of the ways to approach planning, based on professors’ narrative and practical knowledge. Narrative implies a cognitive experience of anticipating teaching and from this approach, planning reveals the teacher’s subjectivity as he sets into acting his practical knowledge. As a consequence, writing the plan is a cognitive act, a “methodological construction” (Edelstein y Coria 2005) that links up reflective processes around what and how it is taught and what and how it is learned. Although the results are still in a process of construction, the study has found coincidences as regards the didactic model and PCK with Kaufman (1999), Marcelo (1998) and Jimenez Narváez’ (2006) findings.