Biology Teacher's Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Thailand: Understanding & Practice

AbstractThe capacity of experienced teachers to help students construct knowledge depends heavily on the tactful blending of content and pedagogy, which is conceptualized as pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This study investigated the teachers’ understanding and practice, which comprise three Biology teachers’ PCK. In this research, the participants demonstrated their PCK through the process of writing a content representation (CoRe), actual teaching in the classroom, and discussion with the researcher during interviews. The results showed that all three teachers lacked adequate content knowledge in Biology and had some difficulties in their classroom teaching of the subject. Their inability to design appropriate instructional and assessment activities is also a matter of great concern. It is suggested that there is an urgent need to improve the Biology teachers’ teaching methods, while promoting their better understandings of the fundamental purposes of science education, the curriculum and the content of the subject