Collaborative content representation design to support out-of-field teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in science

Out-of-field (OOF) teachers without suitable content knowledge may have underdeveloped pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and student learning may be compromised. Developing teachers’ PCK is a challenging task and many researchers call for strategies that encourage collaboration, reflection, and discussion about teaching and learning. In this study, OOF physics teachers collaborated with in-field colleagues using a Content Representation (CoRe) as a scaffold for teachers’ discussions and decision-making to generate a collective form of PCK. To investigate using a CoRe in this way, qualitative data were collected from recorded group discussions and interviews, and lesson observations with the individual OOF teachers. Findings show the CoRe process prompted participants to explicitly share their PCK and aspects of the OOF teachers’ PCK were enhanced, noticeably: improved understanding of concepts; more effective representation of concepts; and, greater attention paid to students’ understanding. The discussions also promoted teachers’ PCK development by stimulating integration of different PCK components.