Content Knowledge Research Articles

To Praxis Test or Not? Mathematics Content Knowledge Tests for Teacher Licensure and Programmatic Considerations on Moving the Preparation Field Forward

ABSTRACT This study examined the relationships between recommended mathematics coursework for secondary mathematics teacher preparation, internal program measures, prior academic performance, and the Praxis-II testing requirement for initial teacher certification used in several states. Using structural equation modeling and path analysis, the research aimed to understand these relationships and their policy implications. Conducted over six years and holding the program measures and design constant for five cohorts, the study found strong support for specialized content knowledge courses, particularly for secondary mathematics teacher candidates who were not well-prepared in high school. Additionally, the findings suggest that the Praxis-II exam might not be necessary for all teacher candidates in mathematics, especially those who were well-prepared in high school and engaged in advanced mathematics coursework for teachers while meeting rigorous program requirements for teacher licensing. The study argues for reconsidering programmatic design in light of these findings while providing program faculty suggestions for program improvements. State Departments of Education and policy makers may consider the research methodology, validity of internal measures, and testing requirements for Praxis-II for future discussions.

A descriptive overview of English-language publications in the field of Astronomy Education Research, 1898 to 2022

Discipline-based education research (DBER) takes the theories and methodologies of education research and applies them in the context of a specific discipline, in this example, astronomy. Research in the teaching and learning of astronomy has an extensive history; astronomy education research (AER), as its own separately defined field, is relatively new, stemming from the early to mid-1990s, as a separate track from physics education research (PER). By using a mixed-methods approach to textual analysis considering 2085 English language publications in the field, an order of magnitude larger than the previous largest overviews of the field, this study paints a rich picture of the landscape of AER over the timespan of a century from 1898 to 2022. This paper finds that AER authors started regularly publishing around 1970 and took off significantly in the 1990s with journal articles (~50%) and conference proceedings (~30%) being the most common method of publication. AER, in its early era, was largely a USA endeavour dominated by ASTRO101. This has changed over time and in recent years, the USA has dropped below 50\% of the worldwide AER publication production. “Celestial Motion”, “Instrumentation/Techniques”, and “Planetary Sciences (not Exoplanets)” are the most common content foci while a significant lack of local galactic and extragalactic education research is identified. AER has been heavily focussed on “Content Knowledge”, “Affective”, and “Engagement”. It is found that most articles tend to be general reporting of approaches or results (~43%) rather than full empirical research (~36%) while there is very little theoretical or historical research in AER yet. This overview, based on results input to an online database (istardb.org), provides a resource to researchers, educators, and other interested stakeholders allowing efficient ascertainment of previous research. This supports both researchers, allowing them to develop research questions at the cutting edge of the field, as well as practitioners, to inform their pragmatic approach based on latest research findings. We also present a set of recommendations and future outlook of the field of Astronomy Education Research.

Language Learning Through Zoom

Attributable to the COVID pandemic, Zoom has become one of most widely used digital tools for online interaction. Schools and universities had to transition to wholly online teaching, and Zoom was one of the platforms used for real-time sessions. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate students' experiences of using tools like Zoom to see the positive and negative sides of videoconferencing for language learning. Students' and teachers' digital competence is an important factor that impacts online learning, and therefore students' experiences are analyzed in relation to the TPACK framework, which looks at teachers' digital competences and the intersections between their technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK). It is found that especially the intersection between technological and pedagogical competences is sometimes lacking among teachers and is identified as the cause of a lot of negative experiences. Thus, the conclusion of this study is that such competences need to be developed by teachers.

“We Will Just Have to Take It Underground”: A Black Studies Approach to Teacher Education and Critical Professional Development

In the context of contemporary attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and curricula that critically interrogate race and power, as well as the Eurocentric nature of traditional teacher education, out-of-school spaces for the critical development of teachers seeking to bring Black studies into their classrooms are necessary. Informed by the historical approaches of Black educators, the authors of this essay partnered with high school and university educators of color to engage in a collaborative process of teacher education, professional development, and curriculum design. The collaboration highlights the importance of curriculum codesign as a teaching method for developing educators’ content and pedagogical knowledge.

Innovative Nursing Faculty Education for Novice Educators.

The nursing faculty shortage in the United States affects enrollment of qualified nursing applicants. The gap may be filled by contracting with clinical nursing experts who often lack the content knowledge as academic nurse educators. Such content includes management of the classroom, evaluation, and legal issues. This article describes a course to provide new faculty with essential information for classroom teaching. Nursing faculty were recruited from multiple education programs and enrolled in one of three sections of a course for new educators. Learners completed activities related to curriculum, evaluation, and academic roles. Focus group evaluations were conducted. Themes emerged related to classroom teaching, learning experiences, improved understanding of nursing education, and knowledge for the scope of nursing faculty responsibilities. Each course provided experience in nursing education pedagogy and practice. Learners developed a wider array of teaching expertise and awareness of the faculty role in the classroom. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(X):XXX-XXX.].

Social media stethoscope: unraveling how doctors' social media behavior affects patient adherence and treatment outcome.

The exposure of the content posted by doctors on social media has the potential to influence how patients perceive and judge doctors. It is necessary to further investigate whether and how the content posted by doctors affects patients' health behaviors and outcomes, as well as to identify the factors that may influence this mechanism. Multi-respondent survey data was collected from 35 doctors and 322 patients in China, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesis model. The findings revealed that doctors posting professional knowledge content on social media positively impacted patient adherence and treatment effectiveness. Conversely, doctors sharing personal life-related content on social media were associated with lower patient adherence and poorer treatment outcome. Moreover, doctor gender and doctor humor moderate the relationship between social media behavior of doctors and patient adherence. Doctors sharing professional knowledge on social media not only fosters trust in physicians but also closely correlates with patient adherence and treatment effectiveness.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of intervention studies on mathematics and science pedagogical content knowledge

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has been considered as professional knowledge that teachers need to effectively instruct students. Empirical studies have been conducted to enrich teachers' PCK through interventions such as professional development programs. In this study, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies about PCK interventions and their quantitative evaluation among mathematics or science teachers at the elementary and secondary education levels. We identified 101 effect sizes (42 for multiple group comparison designs and 59 for multiple time point comparison designs) and found that the interventions had a positive effect in both designs. The results of the meta-regression analysis showed that in the multiple group design, the effects differed by intervention target, with higher scores for the PCK intervention than for the CK-only intervention, and in the multiple time point design, the effects differed by subjects treated, with higher scores for the science materials than for the mathematics materials. These results not only demonstrate the average effectiveness of previous studies aimed at improving teachers' PCK but also provide insights into effective designs for professional development methods that promote PCK acquisition.Systematic review registrationhttps://osf.io/vf4hq/?view_only=068483e4e82c42cd994e2c8174bd0a64.

Beginning teachers’ descriptions of ball games as pedagogic practice in Swedish physical education

Teaching approaches in ball games in school physical education (PE) have traditionally focused on technical proficiency. Technical approaches have been criticised for being teacher-centred, exclusive, and lacking meaning. Game-based approaches (GBAs) have been presented as an alternative way to teach ball games. Employing GBAs is, however, not without challenges. Scholars have pointed to teachers’ limited content knowledge of games, their poor understanding of GBAs, and cultural expectations of ball games as factors that constrain teachers’ work with GBAs. The aim of this article is to provide an understanding of how beginning teachers describe ball games as a pedagogic practice in Swedish PE. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 beginning teachers who had graduated from two physical education teacher education (PETE) institutions. Bernstein's concepts of classification and framing were used to analyse the teachers’ descriptions of pedagogic practice. The findings illustrate how the classification of ball games knowledge varies. Some of the beginning teachers aimed to develop pupils’ understanding of games while others instead used ball games as a means for developing general movement capability or cooperation. Ball games teaching was characterised by a combination of GBAs and technical approaches. The influence of competitive sport outside of school was seen as a challenge, and the beginning teachers used strong framing and different teaching strategies combined with assessment to manage this challenge. The findings raise questions about ball games education in PETE in relation to specific national contexts.

Promoting students’ critical thinking and creativity through TPACK based flipped classroom learning model in higher education

The rapid development of technology has influenced various aspects of life, including education. Optimal utilization of technology can be a crucial step in creating better education that is relevant to the demands of the digital era. One of the learning approaches considered relevant in this era is the flipped classroom model based on TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge). This model is believed to enhance critical and creative thinking skills, which are essential in facing the challenges of the digital age. This study aims to examine the effects of the flipped classroom model integrated with TPACK (FC-TPACK) on the critical thinking and creativity of prospective elementary school teachers. This study employed a pretest-posttest experimental design involving 250 students from public universities in Indonesia. The experimental group consisted of 125 students who used the FC-TPACK model, while the control group comprised 125 students who received conventional learning without FC-TPACK. Data analysis was conducted using MANOVA to assess the overall effect of the learning model, and ANOVA was used to examine differences in each aspect of critical thinking and creativity. The ANOVA results showed significant differences between the experimental and control groups in terms of critical thinking and creativity skills, with a significance value of 0.000 ≤ 0.05 for all aspects measured. The experimental group demonstrated significant improvements in analysis, evaluation, innovation, flexibility in thinking, and originality compared to the control group. Therefore, the FC-TPACK model is recommended for use in learning to support the development of essential skills in the digital era.

Construction and Validation of a Scale to Measure Islamic Primary School Teachers’ Readiness in Implementing Emancipated Curriculum Referring to the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge

This research aims to develop and validate a scale to measure the readiness of science teachers in Islamic primary schools in implementing the Emancipated Curriculum referring to the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK). Eight development steps by DeVellis were used to develop the scale. A total of 224 respondents, comprising six experts and 218 science teachers in Central Java Province and the Special Province of Yogyakarta, agreed to participate. Data were analyzed using SEM-PLS. The development process successfully created a scale of 34 valid and reliable items. These items consist of Technological Knowledge factors (four items), Pedagogical Knowledge factors (14 items), Content Knowledge factors (four items), Pedagogical Content Knowledge factors (four items), Technological Content Knowledge factors (two items), Technological Pedagogical Knowledge factors (two items), and Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge factors (three items). A high reliability was obtained for the scale developed (0.983). This validated scale is ready to be used to examine teachers’ readiness in implementing the Emancipate Curriculum. The measurement with this scale can illustrate the extent to which teachers have TPACK as a provision for implementing the curriculum so that policy recommendations can be made.

Physical Education Administrators’ Instructional Leadership Affecting Their Leadership Efficacy

This study explored the impact of teaching leadership on leadership effectiveness of sports managers at Hunan Normal University. Through teachers' evaluation of sports managers in promoting professional learning, building relationships, collaboration, organizational skills, and teaching practices, their effectiveness levels in content knowledge, teaching knowledge, classroom management, evaluation, and technology application were analyzed. The results show that there is a weak positive correlation between the teaching leadership practices of sports managers and their leadership effectiveness. Based on the research results, this paper puts forward suggestions on improving the leadership of sports managers, aiming to promote the professional development of teachers, strengthen collaboration, improve teaching quality, and ultimately improve students' learning outcomes.

Processing the Narrative: Innovative Graph Models and Queries for Textual Content Knowledge Extraction

The internet contains vast amounts of text-based information across various domains, such as commercial documents, medical records, scientific research, engineering tests, and events affecting urban and natural environments. Extracting knowledge from these texts requires a deep understanding of natural language nuances and accurately representing content while preserving essential information. This process enables effective knowledge extraction, inference, and discovery. This paper proposes a critical study of state-of-the-art contributions exploring the complexities and emerging trends in representing, querying, and analysing content extracted from textual data. This study’s hypothesis states that graph-based representations can be particularly effective when annotated with sophisticated querying and analytics techniques. This hypothesis is discussed through the lenses of contributions in linguistics, natural language processing, graph theory, databases, and artificial intelligence.

Diagnosis of TPACK in Elementary School Teachers: A Case Study in the Colombian Caribbean

Numerous studies support that the development of digital teaching competence is essential in 21st century schools. This paper examines Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) to gain a deeper understanding of ICT integration in teaching. By assessing TPACK, we uncover opportunities to enhance teacher competencies and, consequently, improve student learning. This research evaluated the initial TPACK of primary school teachers from a public school in the Colombian Caribbean. Eight teachers participated in a professional development program based on the Lesson Study (LS) methodology. Adopting an interpretive qualitative approach and a case study for the operational analysis of LS, the findings indicate that teachers, in self-reports and performance-based assessments, highlight high competence in the PK, CK, and PCK domains. This demonstrates their ability to select and adapt effective teaching strategies. They excel in guiding learning and understanding academic content, showcasing a remarkable capacity to adapt to the diverse socioeconomic realities of their students. However, these findings also highlight areas for improvement in developing the technological components of TPACK, specifically TK, TPK, TCK, TPCK, and XK.

Impact of Integrating Educational Technology on Teacher Preparedness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The primary objectives of this review are (1) to provide an overview of the impact of integrating Educational Technology on Teacher Preparedness, (2) to integrate technology into teaching and learning, and (3) to present teachers’ thoughts about technology integration and barriers to integrating technology in education. The systematic literature searches of English language articles were conducted in November 2023 in the Scopus database, yielding 13 studies that met the inclusion criteria and represented six countries. Data analysis resulted in ways for applying the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework within teacher preparation programs. In addition to Integrating technology into teaching and learning. Nevertheless, preservice teachers’ perceptions regarding technology integration should be considered. The results have implications for integrating technology effectively into the curriculum, resulting in better use of technology for student learning. Limitations of the study are discussed.

Knowledge can wait? The epistemic conversion of new beat reporters

This study shows how, during the turbulent period of their initial months on the job, new beat reporters experience a shift in their basic approach to knowledge. This new epistemic approach encompasses two interconnected shifts: From seeing self-knowledge as a necessity to reliance on sources’ knowledge, and from prioritizing content knowledge to prioritizing journalistic knowledge. Findings suggest that reporting without knowledge isn’t a bug, but rather a major feature of news reporting; that at least during reporters’ first years, the main epistemic challenge is reporting despite the lack of beat knowledge; and that the foundations of source-reporter relations are laid down when the latter are at their weakest point in terms of power and knowledge, enabling sources’ to gain a dominant position in shaping the reported realities.

음악교육가들의 교육내용을 반영한 음악 교수내용지식에 따른 유아 음악교육 대학교재 분석: Orff, Dalcroze, Kodály를 중심으로

Objectives The purposes of this study were to analyze university textbooks in early childhood music education utilized within early childhood teacher training courses, according to the music pedagogical content knowledge that reflects the educational content of music educators. Methods For this study, seven early childhood music education university textbooks suitable for research were selected as the research subjects. Next, these textbooks were analyzed and categorized into music pedagogical content knowledge domains: subject content, teaching and learning methods, curriculum, and learner knowledge. The results were presented. Results First, the analysis of the subject content knowledge revealed that there is a noticeable deficiency in content related to traditional Korean music in the textbook. Second, the analysis of the teaching and learning method knowledge in the textbook showed that the included plans for early childhood music activities predominantly focus on music appreciation and activities following the principle of gradual deepening. Activities such as singing with inner hearing, harmony-linked activities, and singing by note or scale are less frequently presented. Third, upon analyzing the curriculum knowledge within the textbooks, the music education content linked to the Nuri curriculum is presented more frequently on average than the content linked to the standard child care curriculum. Fourth, as a result of analyzing the knowledge of leaners in the textbook, the target age for the included plans for early childhood music activities tended to center around young children or toddler-young children integration. Conclusions The significance of this study lies in its proposals for future enhancements and revisions of university textbooks for early childhood music education.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a blended learning system for developing technological andragogical content knowledge (tack) in community educators

Objective: The relevance of content knowledge, as well as andragogical knowledge and technological knowledge, is rapidly coming into focus as a challenge to turn into Technological Andragogical Content Knowledge (TACK). This study aimed to understand better the substantial variations in learning outcomes attributed to each of the seven sub-indicators of comprehension of technological andragogical content knowledge. Method: This study part of quantitative study. The data were gathered twice in this research, once before and once after the TACK intervention program began, to examine the impact of the TACK training paradigm. The TACK Training Model Development program was offered to 97 instructors from 28 Community Learning Activity Centers in the West Sumatra Province, Indonesia. These instructors engaged in the program on a voluntary basis. Result: The results of this study show that there was a statistically significant difference in TACK among currently practicing educators. This study suggests that a blended learning system for educational applications as an intelligence tutor may provide an alternate means of guiding educators. The findings of this research align with other research suggesting that the blended learning strategy has great potential for future TACK-based professional learning enabled by data analytics. This study's findings add to the expanding body of literature on blended learning in teacher education and teacher professional development, which seeks to enhance how adult instructors get specialized professional training to significantly impact their students' achievements. Conclusions: According to the findings, the TACK of the participants showed substantial signs of improvement. These findings contribute to the relatively small body of research that has been done on TACK, which helps adult educators further their professional development through the support of a blended learning system. This allows them to acquire the knowledge necessary to andragogically incorporate digital technology into students' educational experiences in Community Learning Activity Centers. This investigation has the potential to serve as a case study of the integration of blended learning with adult learning theory.

Pedagogical content knowledge in school economics

How can creative teaching in economics education be identified and explored? A construct that assists understanding in this area is pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). It represents the merging of content and pedagogy to understand how particular topics or lessons are organised, represented, and adapted to students’ diverse interests and abilities. This paper draws upon the author's research that explores teaching and learning in school economics to discuss this epistemological concept that blends the traditionally separated knowledge bases of content and pedagogy. The research involved interviewing and observing school economics teachers and student focus group interviews. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data. In this paper, I discuss the emergent theme of how teachers communicated their understanding of subject knowledge by developing their PCK to engage their students in learning. The considerations raised can assist lecturers, teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in enacting the teaching and learning process in economics and other disciplines.

Effects of cooperative learning modes on reading comprehension: general trends and comparative analysis between students with and without vision impairment

ABSTRACT It is essential to consider the impact of the cooperative learning (CL) mode when evaluating the effect of cooperative reading between students with and without vision impairment (VI) in inclusive classrooms. This research employs a within-subject two-factor experimental design to investigate the influence of the CL mode on the reading comprehension performance and cooperation level of students with and without VI, considering two text types. The independent variables are CL modes (positive interdependence <PI> vs. individual accountability <IA>) and text types (narrative vs. expository). Reading comprehension performance is the outcome-oriented variable, and cooperation level (including knowledge construction, social interaction, and content contribution) is the process-oriented variable. Findings reveal challenges for VI and sighted upper-grade elementary students in reaching higher levels of knowledge construction during cooperative reading tasks. The PI mode demonstrates higher levels of knowledge construction for narrative texts, while the IA mode shows superior content contribution for expository texts. Notably, VI students achieve lower reading comprehension scores than sighted students in the IA mode and face disadvantages in knowledge construction and content contribution across different reading comprehension scenarios. Building upon these findings, this study put forward suggestions to improve reading comprehension and cooperative participation for VI students.

New Insights for Teaching the One Health Approach: Transformative Environmental Education for Sustainability

The One Health approach often reaches classrooms through Environmental Education (EE), which aims to guide society’s response to current crises (environmental, health, economic, values). However, traditional EE teaching has focused on isolated ecological concepts and standardised solutions, ignoring the multidimensional nature of EE and failing to integrate the interdependence between environmental, animal, and human health. Moreover, teacher training often neglects didactic content knowledge, preventing students from acquiring the systemic vision needed to address eco-social problems and create sustainable solutions aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This limits teachers’ ability to influence students’ concerns and behaviours. In this context, this study aims to reflect on the current state of the issue and propose strategies informed by Science Education research to improve EE teaching, enabling the integration of One Health dimensions through effective didactics to achieve Transformative Environmental Education (TEE). For this purpose, we begin by addressing the limitations identified in recent systematic reviews, shifting the paradigm towards a symbiosis of EE and Science Education through scientific practices. We then present practical examples showcasing successful EE initiatives that foster a deeper understanding of socio-environmental issues, encourage innovative solutions, and nurture engaged citizens from early education onwards. These proposals can support classroom practice and ongoing teacher self-development. Pedagogical strategies include tackling issues that require systemic and critical thinking by developing scientific and epistemic practices while raising awareness of Environmental Justice. Thus, this study advocates for a new vision of EE, integrating the One Health approach, which could be applied to develop new educational programs, including teacher training. This would lead to a new learning evaluation model and help identify key determinants that trigger pro-environmental behaviours.