PHYSICS

PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

Eugenia Etkina
Rutgers University
Graduate School of Education
eugenia.etkina@gse.rutgers.edu
PTEC 2010, Washington, DC
http://paer.rutgers.edu/PT3
http://www.gse.rutgers.edu

What should a physics instructor

know? (replace physics with biology,
chemistry, etc.)
Subject matter
(concepts, rules,
problem solving).
Methods of acquiring
knowledge: How do
we know what we
know? What are
accepted rules of the
game?

WHAT IS
MISSING?

How human brain works.

How people learn.
How people work in groups.
How motivation is related to
learning.

What should students learn in a

physics course?
What difficulties do they have?
How can we help them best?
How can we assess them?
What resources are available?
How to structure the curriculum ?

Pedagogical Content Knowledge

PCK
Lee Shulman, 1987
The category of teacher knowledge most likely to
distinguish the understanding of a content specialist from
that of the pedagogue.

L. S. Shulman, "Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform."

Harvard Education Review, 57, 1-22 (1987).

Elements of Teacher Knowledge

Content
knowledge for
teaching
CK

Pedagogical
content
knowledge
PCK

Pedagogical
knowledge
PK

Assessing PCK
Your students are learning Newtonian dynamics and are solving the
following problem:
An unlabeled free-body diagram for an object on a table is shown on the
left. Sketch and describe in words a process for which the diagrams
might represent the forces that other objects exert on an object of
interest.
You hear one of the students say: There is a mistake in the diagram,
the upward vertical force arrow should always be the same as the
downward arrow.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Do you agree with the student? Explain your answer.

Why do you think the student made this comment?
What activities done in class could have contributed to his
opinion?
How would you respond to this comment in class?
If you were to test the students idea, what experiments
would you design?

Reflecting on your own PCK

Make a list of things that affected your answer to each question.
Try to separate them into CK and PCK.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Do you agree with the student? Explain your answer.

Why do you think the student made this comment?
What activities done in class could have contributed to his
opinion?
How would you respond to this comment in class?
If you were to test the students idea, what experiments
would you design?

PCK components
Use your list to come up with essential components of
pedagogical content knowledge for teaching physics.

5 components of PCK
Knowledge of assessment
Knowledge of student
ideas
Knowledge of
curriculum

Knowledge of
successful instructional
strategies

Orientation towards teaching

S. Magnusson, J. Krajcik, & H. Borko, Nature, sources and development of pedagogical
content knowledge for science teaching. In J. Gess-Newsome & N. G. Lederman (Eds.),
Examining pedagogical content knowledge: The construct and its implications for science
education (pp. 95-133). (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1999).

Components of Teacher
Knowledge
Subject matter
(concepts, rules,
problem solving).
Methods of acquiring
knowledge: How do
we know what we
know? What are
accepted rules of the
game?

How human brain works.

How people learn.
How people work in groups.
How motivation is related to
learning.

PCK
Students ideas
Curriculum
Instructional strategies
Assessment
ORIENTATION

Physics PCK: ORIENTATION

TOWARDS TEACHING
Beliefs of the role of students prior knowledge in their
learning, the purpose of problem solving, the roles of
experiments in the classrooms, what motivates students in the
classroom, etc.
J. Minstrell, Facets of students' thinking: Designing to cross the gap from research to
standards-based practice. (In Designing for Science: Implications for Professional,
Instructional, and Everyday Science, K. Crowley, C.D. Schunn, and T. Okada, Eds.,
Mahwah, NJ, 2001).

Physics PCK: CURRICULUM

Knowledge of physics curriculum - the sequence of topics that
allows a student to build the understanding of a new concept or
skill on what she or he already knows, and what topics are
better suited to build certain scientific abilities.
Knowledge of different curricula that exist out there.

CURRICULUM
Example 1: How do you sequence of material in your course, how
do you decide what is crucial and what you can to omit?
One needs to understand the ideas of impulse and momentum in
order to construct a microscopic model of gas pressure.
Or: One needs to understand particular nature of matter to be able
to construct explanations of charging by rubbing

Example 2: How do you decide when and how to use a particular

activity, piece of equipment, etc.
Metal balls on tracks (mechanics surprising data tasks).

Physics PCK: STUDENT IDEAS

Knowledge of students pre-instruction ideas when they are constructing a
new concept.
J. Minstrell, Facets of Students Thinking, diagnoser on-line; a great resource for your courses
R. Knight, Five Easy Lessons: Strategies for Successful Physics Teaching, (Addison Wesley,
2002).

Knowledge of students epistemological orientation.

D. Hammer, Two approaches to learning physics, The Physics Teacher, 27, 664., D. (1989).
A. Elby, Helping physics students learn how to learn, American Journal of Physics, 69, 54,
(2001).

Knowledge of difficulties students may be having interpreting physics

language that is different from everyday language.
D. Brookes, 2006; D. Brookes and E. Etkina Force, ontology and language. Physical
Review, Special Topics, Physics Education Research, 5, 010110.

Physics PCK: SUCCESSFUL

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES (all
based on student ideas)
Knowledge of effective instructional strategies for a particular concept
(what specific methods or specific activity sequences make student
learning more successful).

mg
N

FEarth on object= FE on O
Newtons
3rd law
pair
force?

mg

N
FS on O

Some resources that I use in my

classes to help physics teachers find
those strategies

http://Phet.colorado.edu
http://Diagnoser.com
Activphysics (google and it will come up)
http://Pum.rutgers.edu
5 easy lessons by R. Knight
PER publications on student learning by Washington group,
Maryland group, NC State group, and others (these are in the
AJP).
Rutgers Resources - see next slides

http://paer.rutgers.edu/pt3/

QuickTime and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

A. Van Heuvelen and E. Etkina, The Physics Active Learning Guide

(instructor and student edition), Addison Wesley, 2006

PCK: Assessment

Formative

Summative

Formative Assessment
Formative assessment: during learning to provide
feedback both to the teacher and students and
enhance learning DURING learning.
Two changes have to happen: change in student
learning and change in teacher teaching.
P. Black and D. Wiliam, Assessment and classroom learning, Assessment in Education, 5, 1, 7-74
(1998).
P. Black, C. Harrison, C. Lee, B. Marshall and D. William, Assessment for Learning (Open University
Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2003)

Three steps of formative

assessment

Where do you
need to go?
What does
understanding look
like?

How can you

get there?

Where are
you now?
What is your
reasoning?

What does understanding look like?

vf
v
vf

vi

vi

Where are you now?

An object moves at constant speed in a circle.
(a) Determine its acceleration direction at
each of the four positions shown in the
illustration.
C
(b) Is there a pattern in the directions of
acceleration? If so, what is it?

Top View

B
A

How do you get there?

When using the above skill, make sure that you:
draw initial and final velocity arrows that are tangent
to the circle,
draw the velocity change arrow from the head of the
initial arrow to the head of the final arrow, and
draw pictures and diagrams large enough and with
enough detail to see what is happening.

Where are you now?

Imagine that a golf cart moves on a level
path around a curve shown in the top-view
diagram to the right. For each situation
below, use the graphical velocity subtraction
method to estimate which arrow is closest to
the direction of the carts acceleration when
passing the midpoint P.
(a) The cart moves at constant speed.
(b) The carts speed is decreasing.
(c) The carts speed is increasing rapidly.

Physics PCK: ASSESSMENT

What do we assess with this task?

Sketch a
situation the
equation
might

Mathematical description.

describe.

900 N (50 kg)(9.8 N/kg) = (50 kg) v

12 m

Write in words a
problem for which
the equation is a
solution.

Helping future physics teachers

build their PCK
Learn physics
for teaching

Build PCK

Learn how
people learn

How can one acquire a cognitive skill?

Independent
practice

Cognitive apprenticeship
Slowly removing scaffolding

Providing coaching and scaffolding

Contexts that model

proficiency

Physics Teacher Preparation

Program at Rutgers

http://www.gse.rutgers.edu
45 graduate credits
2 years plus summer
1 semester of student teaching

Content - undergraduate + 6 credits

Pedagogy - 6 credits
Policy 6 credits
Student teaching 9 credits

Process and reasoning of science + PCK 18

credits

QuickTime and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

Learning and Clinical Practice (Rutgers

model)
Student teaching
Cognitive apprenticeship

A student in a
reformed General
Physics course

A student in
GSE methods
courses

A lab and
recitation TA in
reformed
courses

Slowly removing scaffolding,

Using existing materials to teach

Providing coaching and scaffolding

during teaching mini-lessons

Contexts of physics learning

that model proficiency

Independent
practice,
designing her/his
own lessons

EXAMINIG ONE COURSE SYLLABUS

EXAMINE THE SYLLABUS CAREFULLY AND PREPARE
TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
1. WHAT ASPECTS OF THE PCK OR PHYSICS CONTENT
KNOWLEDGE DOES THE COURSE ADDRESS?
2. HOW IS COGNITIVE APPRENTICESHIP EMBEDDED IN
THE COURSE?
3. HOW IS FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT EMBEDDED IN THE
COURSE?

Course Sequence
#1

#2
#3

Year 1
Development of Ideas in Physical Science*
Use ISLE framework to reconstruct how physicists built the
knowledge taught in our present courses and design/teach high
school physics lessons in which students learn by following the
original path of physicists. Learn what difficulties they had and how
difficulties of our students can be explained historically.
Teaching Physical Science*, ** , oral exam
Technology in Science Education*
Apply ISLE framework to design and practice learning cycles,
combine them with the knowledge of student resources to plan units
and lessons, learn to use technology and learn assessment methods
* students teach a full lesson
**students plan a unit

Course Sequence
Summer 1
#4 Research internship science and teaching methods in
X-ray astrophysics**
Learn how to do research in X-ray astrophysics and observe
high school students learning through ISLE in the same
program
**students plan a unit

Course Sequence
#5

Year 2
Teaching Internship seminar*, **
Plan a unit and lessons during student teaching, design lessons of
specific types, assessments instruments, and learn how to reflect on
teaching practice

#6 Multiple Representations in Physical Science*, **, oral exam

Learn how to use cognitive strategies and scientific reasoning to
enhance student problem solving in a physics course, apply
technology

*students teach a full lesson

**students plan a unit
Total in the program: teach in class 5 lessons and plan 5 different units;
ant end of each semester every student receives copies of
everyones materials

Quantitative Results
Graduates of the physical science program
2003 - 1
2004 - 5
2005 - 7
2006 - 7
2007 - 6
2008 - 7
2009 - 7
2010 - 7
Present High School and Middle School (1) Teachers
2003 - 1
2004 - 5
2005 - 5 (1 quit, one never started)
2006 - 6 (1 never started)
2007 - 6
2008 - 7
2009 - 7

CURRICULUM DESIGN AND

PLANNING
UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN

Identify desired
results
Determine
Acceptable
evidence
G. P. Wiggins & J. McTighe, Understanding by Design,
(Pearson, NJ, 2006.)

Plan Learning
Experiences and
Instruction