Teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge: The role of structural differences in teacher education

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Thilo Kleickmann
  • Dirk Richter
  • Mareike Kunter
  • Jürgen Elsner
  • Michael Besser
  • Stefan Krauss
  • Jürgen Baumert
Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and content knowledge (CK) are key components of teacher competence that affect student progress. However, little is known about how teacher education affects the development of CK and PCK. To address this question, our research group constructed tests to directly assess mathematics teachers’ CK and PCK. Based on these tests, we compared the PCK and CK of four groups of mathematics teachers at different points in their teaching careers in Germany. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that PCK and CK measurement was satisfactorily invariant across the teacher populations considered. As expected, the largest differences in CK and PCK were found between the beginning and the end of initial teacher education. Differences in the structures of teacher education were reasonably well reflected in participants’ CK and PCK.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Teacher Education
Volume64
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)90-106
Number of pages17
ISSN0022-4871
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.2013

    Research areas

  • Didactics of Mathematics
  • content knowledge, measurement invariance, pedagogical content knowledge, regression analysis, teacher education

DOI