The importance of pedagogical content knowledge in curriculum development for illumination engineering

Abstract

An understanding of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and educative materials has been critical to our teaching programs in illumination engineering. We will discuss the PCK basis of a number of innovative curriculum efforts at the National Optical Astronomy and how we develop “educative materials” that improve educator content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and contextual knowledge. We also describe the process and team approach required to create these “educative materials.” The foundation of our work at NOAO were two previous projects at the NASA Classroom of the Future. These projects created educative curricular materials with sophisticated science content integrated with a deep, authentic understanding of science process. Additional curricula with these attributes were developed at NOAO for the NSF-sponsored Hands-On Optics project (SPIE, OSA, and NOAO), for the citizen science project Globe at Night (NOAO), and for the Quality Lighting Teaching Kits (NOAO, International Astronomical Union, OSA Foundation, SPIE, CIE, and the International Dark Sky Association). These projects all strove to create educative instructional materials that can enhance the pedagogical content knowledge of educators.