Measuring Chemistry Teachers’ Content Knowledge: Is It Correlated to Pedagogical Content Knowledge?

Abstract

Although the construct of professional knowledge has been gained in the center stage of educational research, content knowledge as one of the main aspects is only marginally handled. While in many studies teachers’ content knowledge and its relation to other teacher characteristics are not based on a direct measurement, a large-scale test instrument for quantifying chemistry teachers’ content knowledge has been developed. The development of test items in a multiple-choice single-select format was based on a theoretical model which considers different types of knowledge, different topics, and curricular classifications. Besides evaluation of content knowledge, a scale for describing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge was used and background information was collected. This study’s sample includes 166 teachers of different school types (basic general education, extensive general education, intensified general education, and comprehensive school) which show significant differences both in content knowledge and in pedagogical content knowledge. This procedure allows for revealing aspects influencing teachers’ content knowledge and information about the correlation between content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Furthermore presented results serve as a basis for discussion on teacher’s content knowledge needed in school.