Planning with Pedagogical Content Knowledge

This is taken  from "Understanding and Developing Science Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge" by John Loughran, Amanda Berry and Pamela Mulhall.

By way of working out what you know about the teaching of a concept we are better able to teach it. It is the relationship between our subject knowledge and how students learn is key to understand.

These questions  are part of the Content Representation (CoRe) tool that groups of teachers use in conceptualizing the content of a particular subject or learning intention.  Using CoRe has helped teachers to develop the fundamental concepts behind the ideas they are teaching (Threshold concepts?), deepens teachers pedagogical content knowledge which ultimately results in teachers greater confidence in their teaching and willingness to develop new approaches.   It is worthwhile noting that like "Lesson study" the participation in the process appears to be more valuable than the items ( in this case a matrix) produced.

The question asked of the teachers about the ideas being taught are as follows:

What are the Big ideas or concepts?

What you intend students to learn?

Why important to learn it?

What else might you know that they don’t intend them to learn yet?

What are the difficulties in teaching this idea?

What’s your knowledge of student thinking that influences your teaching of this idea?

What other factors influence your teaching of this idea?

What are your reasons for the selected teaching procedures?

How will you find out about student understanding or confusions on this idea?

Here is a detailed example on "Scientific explanations (theories) are tentative and not absolute." that the internet has graciously provided.

And one on "Empirical Consistency is the Basis for Scientific Explanations"

And another....on "Subjectivity in Science"

The first few chapters of the book are available here.