SCIENCE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR KNOWLEDGE BASE FOR TEACHING FORCE CONCEPTS

Abstract

It is important for students to understand force concepts because they are central to learning physics and other sciences; however, students find it difficult to understand. There are calls for teachers to tap into their professional knowledge and develop beliefs that help them assist students comprehend the topic. To meet this challenge, teachers’ perceptions of their knowledge base for teaching force concepts should be probed because perceptions act as windows into teachers’ practices. This study, therefore, explored physics teachers’ perceptions of their knowledge base for teaching force concepts. Science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) frameworks were used to develop a questionnaire based on a 5-point Likert scale administered to 100 physical science teachers who were randomly selected from 54 schools in five districts in Lesotho. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The results suggest that, even though teachers reported positive views about their knowledge base, there is no correlation between sub-components of curricular knowledge. It is concluded that teachers should build the curricular knowledge by participating in collaborative activities. It is, therefore, recommended that studies that probe teachers’ actual knowledge of PCK constructs are executed, so that appropriate information is available when planning professional development activities targeting teachers’ PCK. Keywords: force concepts, pedagogical content knowledge, teacher knowledge, teachers’ perceptions of knowledge