CoRes utilization for building PCK in pre-

service teacher education on the digestive

system topic
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 1848, 020002 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4983930
Published Online: 30 May 2017

Ikmanda Nugraha

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© 2017 Author(s).
 CoRes Utilization for Building PCK in Pre-Service Teacher
Education on the Digestive System Topic
Ikmanda Nugraha

International Program on Science Education (IPSE), Faculty of Mathematics and Science Education, Universitas
Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudi no 229, Bandung 40154, Indonesia

Corresponding author: ikmandanugraha@upi.edu

Abstract. Knowledge of teachers in learning activities in the classroom has a close relationship with how well and how much
students learn. Recently, a promising development in teacher education has appeared that centers on the academic construct of
pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This study was an exploratory study into a science teacher education program that seeks
to build the foundations on which pre-service teachers can begin to build their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The
program involved the use of Content Representations (CoRes), which was initially applied as component of a strategy for
exploring and gaining insights into the PCK of in-service science teachers. This study involved the researcher and 20 students
(third year) in a pre-service teacher education course (School Science I) in science education when the students worked to make
content analysis on the digestive system topic. During the course, the students make their own CoRes through a workshop for
digestive system topic individually, in pairs and whole class discussion. Data were recorded from students’ CoRes, student
reflective journals, interviews, and field notes recorded in the researcher’s reflective journal. Pre-service teachers’ comments
from interviews and reflective journals were coded in relation to references about: (1) the effectiveness of variety strategies in
building the knowledge bases required to design a CoRes and (2) their awareness and/or development of tentative components of
future PCK for a digestive system topic as a result of CoRes construction. Observational data were examined for indications of
increasing independence and competency on the part of student teachers when locating appropriate information for designing
their CoRes. From this study, it is hoped that the pre-service science teachers are able to build knowledge and then transform it
into a form of PCK for digestive system topic for their first classroom planning and teaching to teach digestive system contents
effectively.

INTRODUCTION
Several studies have showed that one factor that will greatly affect the success of the learning activities are
teachers’ PCK. PCK is a special knowledge that have been formed over time and developed through experience.
PCK is combination of teachers’ content knowledge with pedagogy which becomes an understanding of how certain
topics, issues, and lesson materials are prepared, delivered and adapted to the diversity of the students’ learning [7].
Shulman’s idea further developed by emphasizing on four main ideas about the teacher's knowledge, namely:
knowledge of the subject matter, knowledge of general pedagogy, knowledge of context, and knowledge of the
subject matter pedagogy or pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) [2].
Grossmans’ idea further developed regarding PCK by explaining that PCK are composed of five components:
(1) teachers’ orientation in teaching science, (2) knowledge of students understanding, (3) knowledge about teaching
strategies, (4) knowledge about the assessment, and (5) knowledge of the curriculum5. Furthermore, PCK idea was
conceptualized with four important characteristics: (1) PCK includes discrete categories from the applied knowledge
during teaching, (2) PCK is a dynamic change and continuously acquired by experience, (3) knowledge of the
subject matter is the center of PCK, (4) PCK support the transformation of knowledge of the subject matter into a
form of knowledge that can be understood by all students [1]. PCK is not only the knowledge that teachers have, but
PCK also a reflection of the quality of teacher knowledge, experience of teachers, and other things that make the
whole PCK integrated component in creating an effective learning experience for students. Above all, expert

Mathematics, Science, and Computer Science Education (MSCEIS 2016)

AIP Conf. Proc. 1848, 020002-1–020002-5; doi: 10.1063/1.4983930
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1520-1/$30.00

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teachers are not “born” with PCK, they are so many times required to acquire a lot of skills and new knowledge
needed to become expert teachers [6].
Recently, there are many researchers in science teacher education have begun to investigate pedagogical
approaches that help pre-service teachers to develop their professional learning and begin laying a foundation for
their own PCK development [1], [4]. One of the strategy to develop the pre-service teachers PCK is the use of
CoRes in science teacher education [4].
Some studies revealed that the use of CoRes can bridge content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge thus
helping pre-service teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the science lessons [3], [8]. CoRes (Figure.1) tries to
uncover and describe teachers’ knowledge when they are teaching particular science concepts. CoRes consists a set
of five to eight big ideas about a certain topic at the head of the columns, and a set of eight pedagogical questions for
each row; the matrix is completed by considering the pedagogical questions for each big idea.

Table 1. Sample CoRes matrix

Science Concepts
Big Idea 1 Big Idea 2 Big Idea 3
What you intend the students to learn about this idea?
Why is it important for students to know this?
What else do you know about this idea (that you don’t
intend students to know yet)?
Difficulties/limitations connected with teaching this idea
Knowledge about students’ thinking which influences your
teaching of this idea
Other factors that influence your teaching of this idea
Teaching procedures (and particular reasons for using these
toengage with this idea
Specific way of ascertaining students’ understanding of
confusion around this idea (include likely range of
responses)

In this study, we tried to use CoRes to develop Pre-service teachers’ PCK on the concept of human digestive
system. it should be important that pre-service teachers have knowledge about digestive system as the systems in our
body and also as a unit in the science curriculum, which may help students, be familiar with themselves and their
surroundings and recognize and solve the problems they are encountered with.

RESEARCH METHODS
This research focuses on the area of science student teacher education with the objective to investigate the
utilization of a CoRes as a planning tool to develop science student teachers’ PCK. The study was designed to
examine whether such CoRes as a tool can develop science student teacher. This study built on nascent work into
the use of CoRes in secondary teacher education3. This study involved the researcher and 20 students (third year) in
a pre-service teacher education course (School Science I) in science education when the students worked to make
content analysis on the digestive system topic for junior high school students. During the course, the students make
their own CoRes through a workshop for digestive system topic individually, in pairs and whole class discussion.
Data were recorded from students’ CoRes, student reflective journals, interviews, and field notes. Student teachers’
comments from interviews and reflective journals were coded using framework in relation to references about: (1)
the effectiveness of variety strategies in building the knowledge bases required to design a CoRes and (2) their
awareness and/or development of tentative components of future PCK for a digestive system topic as a result of
CoRes construction3. Observational data were examined for indications of increasing independence and competency
to decide an appropriate information for designing their CoRes.

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 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Introducing CoRes for Pre-service teacher education has provided the opportunity for them to determine and
select the key concepts they will fill in the CoRes table, although pre-service teachers have not a lot of teaching
experience. The first step in filling CoRes is creating big ideas in the form of a basic science concepts that they need
to design for digestive system lesson. At the beginning of the workshop, there was confusion about how to create big
ideas, because they did not have the experience to create big ideas. With the help of researchers and peer discussion
to make big ideas, pre-service teachers may realize that making big ideas can help them in preparing a good lesson,
they also recognized that the sequences of concepts need to be considered carefully to guide the lesson from basic to
more complex concepts. Here is the Examples of big ideas expressed by students, eg. (1) Human digestive system
consists of digestive tract and digestive glands, (2) the process of food processing includes ingestion, digestion,
absorption, and elimination, (3) digestive deficiency can be caused by internal and external factor.
From the interviews, students expressed that design CoRes made them realize the importance to choose
appropriate concepts and how those concepts sequences during the lesson.

At the beginning its difficult for me to create the ideas, but after workshop and discussion, I realized that in the
lesson preparation we need to choose appropriate concepts and how to organize the concepts, so we as the
future teachers can guide our student to have the basic concepts at the first place, and scaffold them into more
complex one.

Mika (pseudonym), post-interviews

The first question on the CoRes table provide the opportunity for pre-service teachers to decide on the details of
how the teaching material will be delivered. All pre-service teachers can realize it with regard to the content of the
curriculum. Fill the demands of the curriculum is seen as the rationale for determining the minimum standard of
teaching material that must be delivered on digestive system topic. The detail material that has been detailed
specifically focus on the big ideas because the big ideas can guide the pre-service teacher to choose the appropriate
concepts.
The second and third questions relating to students, an interesting thing on the second question is about the
importance of the teaching material to students. Most of the students filling the CoRes table with the answers about
the importance of digestive system for student daily life, for example maintaining health by always preparing
hygiene and well-cooked food, avoiding additional substances either preservatives or food preservatives that are
harmful to health. Then to the third question about what materials that are not intended for the students to learn, pre-
service teachers make a base to consider is the level of difficulty. In this research, the CoRes table is aimed for the
digestive system lesson in junior high school, so they answered this with the concepts that will be learnt in senior
high school. the basis for consideration is the pre-service teachers school experience and also the curriculum. Here is
the example

Honestly I have never thought the importance of the digestive system lesson rather than just to finish the
science curriculum requirement, but soon after I worked with CoRes table, I realized that it could be more than
that, and now I am thinking that the digestive system lesson must also give the understanding for students to
maintain their digestive system healthy and they can choose good food for them. Honestly after I worked with
CoRes, I asked my sister who is junior high school student what is the importance of the lesson for her.

Cici (pseudonym), post-interviews

Difficulties were expressed on the question number four on the CoRes table. Because the process of digestion
occurs in the body, the digestive process in the body involves chemical and physical reactions that cannot be seen
directly. It became common difficulties raised by pre-service teachers because they need to provide an appropriate
model to bridge those processes into student’s understanding.
The possibilities of the student's thinking are a very interesting part the fifth question on the CoRes table. Some
of the example that appears on pre-service student’s discussion as follow. Eg. (1) Students might think that tracea
and esophagus is the same tract, (2) there are no additional organ that support digestive process such as liver, (3) the
processing the food is only digestion but also includes ingestion, absorption and elimination, and (4) the food that

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moves down from the mouth into the stomach is because of gravity force, so when students eat by upside down
position, the food will come to their head.
Students daily life experiences become the focus for the sixth question of the CoRes table. Most of the
participants shared the same idea that daily life will form conceptions on student understanding. Students can build
their understanding from their daily experiences, such as watching television, internet, parent explanations, previous
school experience, and many more.
There were variety of answers regarding the teaching procedure that addressed in the seventh question in CoRes
table. Interestingly there were no participant that raised lecturing as their teaching procedures. All the participants
agreed that every teaching procedure have their own strength and weaknesses. Students center approach mainly
become the major choice to conduct the lesson. The teaching procedure that can be revealed for teaching digestive
system ranging from role playing, game, experiment and multimedia utilization. One of the most interesting
teaching procedure is making t-shirt with digestive system pictures. In the interviews the pre-service teachers also
indicated awareness of how the act of CoRe design was heightening awareness of the components of PCK, like
knowledge of instructional strategies for example.

There’s nothing wrong with lecturing, but I think for junior high school student, let them do something will
encourages them to learn. And in this case, I will play the game with the student to learn about the digestive
system. For sure I will make the t-shirt with digestive system picture in it to make them even more than just
excited.

Kartika (pseudonym), post-interviews

The last question of the CoRes table tries to reveal the assessment that will be use by the pre-service teachers
during their lesson. In this case, all of the participants concerned that they will use test to assess students’
understanding and none of them think to use the non-test assessment.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings this research in line with the study that working with CoRes in a planned and strategic approach in
pre-service teacher education3,8. The use of Cores has a very positive and promising for development of in pre-
service teacher PCK5. As a tool for developing the pre-service, the design of a CoRes is no easy task for pre-service
teachers. However, with careful discussion and guidance CoRes design process enables pre-service teachers to begin
realizing and developing some of the knowledge of experienced science teachers in ways that can help to bolster
feelings of confidence and competence when they come to the real teaching experience. Clearly their lack of
classroom experience and experimentation at this stage of their professional careers is a limiting factor in their PCK
development but the findings from this study show CoRes designs could be a good start for such growth3.
This study has a small sample size, which poses a limitation on the trust of the design of this study. However, it
is the intention of the teacher educators to continue research and follow-up action to the use of CoRes table to
improve the development of PCK future with the same cohort of students in following years. In the following years,
we are also planning the use the CoRes table in the school based internship program which allow the expert teachers
and pre-service to share and discuss and intensively develop their PCK at the same time.

REFERENCES
1. S. K Abell, International Journal of Science Education 30, 1405–1416 (2008).
2. P. L. Grossman, The making of a teacher: Teacher knowledge and teacher education (The Teachers
College Press, New York, 1990).
3. A. Hume, and A. Berry, Research in Science Education 41, 341–355 (2010).
4. J. Loughran, A. Berry, and P. Mullhall, Understanding and developing science teachers’ pedagogical
content knowledge (Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2006)
5. S. Magnusson, J. Krajacik and H. Borko, Examining PCK: The construct and its implications for science
education (Kluwer Academic Press, Boston, 1999) pp. 95-120.

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6. E. Rohann, R. Taconis, and W. Jochems, International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 20,
15–26. (2010).
7. Shulman, L. Harvard Educational Review 57, 1–22 (1987).
8. J. Williams, and J. Lockley, Journal of Technology Education, (2012).

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