UNCOVERING THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONTENT KNOWLEDGE, PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE: PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to compare the perceptions of prospective teachers with respect to their Content Knowledge (CK), Pedagogical Knowledge (PK), and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in the subject areas of mathematics, science, English and Social Studies. Census sampling was used to take 189 prospective teachers from two teacher education institutes (Institute I= 101, Institute II= 88) in this cross sectional survey type study. The analysis of questionnaire data showed that no significant difference was found in CK of prospective teachers in all subject areas. Significant differences were found in PK and PCK in the subject areas of English, Science and Mathematics whereas, for the subject of Social Studies, this difference was not observed in the prospective teachers of both institutes. Findings of the study suggest that teacher education programs should be aligned with the appropriate model for pre-service teacher education meant for the improvement of CK, PK and PCK in the English, Science, and Mathematics with more focus on Social Studies.