Supporting the development of pre-service teachers’ pedagogical knowledge about planning for practical work

Practical, or laboratory, work is a common pedagogical strategy used in school science classrooms, yet its effectiveness for enhancing student learning is contested. Developing teachers’ pedagogical knowledge about planning for practical work can improve its effectiveness by ensuring that tasks are well-conceived and effective for linking what students actually do in practical work with the concepts teachers intend them to learn. This paper reports findings from an intervention that aimed to develop pre-service teachers’ pedagogical knowledge about planning for practical work. The intervention took place during a 12-week secondary biology teacher preparation method unit over two consecutive years. The intervention introduced the problems associated with ineffective practical work then engaged pre-service teachers in recall, immersion, noticing, microteaching and reflection experiences designed to promote their pedagogical thinking about practical work. The effectiveness of the intervention was assessed using data collected from 76 student assignments and one focus group. Thematic data analysis used declarative and procedural knowledge as a theoretical lens to seek evidence of the development of preservice teachers’ pedagogical knowledge. The intervention was found to enhance the development of PST declarative knowledge about various aspects of planning, in particular by recognition of the complexity of planning for practical work, the need to link what students do with objects and the ideas the teacher intends students learn, and the value of reflective practice. Findings indicate more scaffolding is needed to support PSTs when developing procedural knowledge in relation to practical work.