Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions AboutTeacher Knowledge

Abstract

Teacher knowledge involves various knowledge domains such as content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge that are required for teaching. Teacher education programs should provide opportunities for improvement of professional knowledge and skills for preservice teachers. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine the level of preservice teachers’ perception about teacher knowledge and investigate how it differs with respect to some variables such as gender, department, class, academic achievement and career planning. A total of 315 preservice teachers (109 male, 206 female) from four different universities participated in this study. The data was collected through a 24-item Perception AboutTeacher Knowledge Scale. The reliability coefficient of the scale was found to be .93. The factor analysis revealed that teacher knowledge can be explained by five knowledge domains: Pedagogical Knowledge, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Curriculum Knowledge, Content Knowledge and Knowledge of Students. The findings indicated that preservice teachers’ perception about their own teacher knowledge is high and that perception varies with respect to preservice teachers’ class, career planning and their perception about the quality of the undergraduate program that they enrolled in.