A comparative exploratory study of pre-service and in-service high school teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in galvanic cells

Abstract

In this exploratory study pre-service and in-service high school teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in galvanic cells is assessed. In addition, this knowledge has been related to the instructional approaches they prefer. A written questionnaire, adapted from the Loughran, Mulhall, and Berry’s CoRe instrument (2004), considering two different situations (Daniell cell and simple voltaic cell), has been used for this purpose. The sample made up of 25 pre-service teachers and 15 in-service teachers. The analysis of the results achieved so far suggest that: a) high school teachers’ PCK on galvanic cells is not a desirable knowledge; b) in-service teachers seems to have a significantly better PCK than pre-service teachers; and c) there seem to be no significant differences in preferred teaching approaches between the two groups of teachers.