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Development of instrument measuring the level of teachers’ Pedagogical

Content Knowledge (PCK) in environmental education

Article  in  Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences · December 2010

DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.12.131

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Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 9 (2010) 174–178

WCLTA 2010

Development of instrument measuring the level of teachers'

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in
environmental education
Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed Abdullaha *, Lilia Halima
a
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor 43600, Malaysia

Abstract

Since 1998, Environmental Education has been implemented in Malaysian curriculum across subject matter. During this period,
it was found that there were no significant changes produced in students’ level of awareness, attitudes and behavior. Lack of
pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) among teachers might be a primary factor contributing to ineffective implementation of
Environmental Education. This paper discusses the development of an instrument that is measure the level of teachers' PCK on
Environmental Education. Development processes involve three steps that include: a) determining constructs of PCK; b)
developing the items; and c) analyzing the items for its validity and reliability. The instrument was piloted with 50 secondary
teachers. The pilot data were analyzed to determine the alpha value for each item and construct using SPSS 11.5. Expert opinions
were also obtained to validate the instrument in term of its content. Evidence of content validity and reliability are presented.
Based on the first pilot study, it is suggested that second pilot test to be conducted using factorial analysis method to confirm
factors that make up the PCK.
© 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords: Environmental Education; Pedagogical Content Knowledge; instrument development

1. Introduction

Environmental issues is now discussed and debated among parties all over the world. The natural environment is
seems to be deteriorating in an alarming ways. In Malaysia, the level of environmental knowledge among students
reported to be high but still not sufficient to contribute to the change in attitude and their behavior (Mageswary et al.
2006). Studies conducted by Norlila (2007) shows 3R practice among students is at the moderate level while
Nachimuthu (2008) said 5R practice among them is at low level.
To overcome this problem, environmental knowledge should be given to people through programs or activities
that demonstrate the benefit they get by taking action towards environment preservation and conservation. This is
because benefits to oneself are essential for most people’s awareness of environmental issues to be translated into
action on them (Harris, 2006).
Therefore, environmental education needs to be improved in so that the environmental knowledge can be offered
more effective. As Harris (2006) argued, one of the strategies for moving sentiments and behaviors toward

*Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed Abdullah

E-mail address: sharifahshereen87@yahoo.com

1877-0428 © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.12.131
 Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed Abdullah and Lilia Halim / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 9 (2010) 174–178 175

environmental preservation is through increasing local educational effort. This opinion also shared by Olofsson and
हhman (2006). According to them, environmental concern is positively associated with education. Ignatow (2006)
associates education with environment through ecological environmental worldviews concept. This concept explains
humans are dependent on, rather than separated from nature; and science can help humans to balance their
interactions with nature.
Teachers play important role to ensure their students get adequate knowledge to preserve and conserve the
environment. However, study by Che Kalbi (1999) and Khor (2006) showed that teachers' knowledge on the
environment is between moderate to high level. But according to Rohiza (2004) those teachers might master on
particular environmental issues only; while for Khor (2006), the level of teachers’ knowledge are at satisfactory but
not for knowledge about the concept of environment and sustainability. Tiwi et al. (2006) added, there are many
individuals who have knowledge and awareness on the environment but still have an irresponsible attitude towards
the environment.
This situation is worrying. Teachers are the driving force in determining the effectiveness of teaching and
learning (Vandervoot et al., 2004; Darling-Hammond, 2006; Ballard & Bates, 2008). It is necessary for teachers to
have knowledge about the environment in order to deliver Environmental Education to students effectively. One of
the knowledge needed by teacher is Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) (Shulman, 1987; Rusilawati & Zainon,
2009; van Direl & Berry, 2010) for specific subject and discipline. So, the purpose of this study is to develop an
instrument that measures the level of teachers’ PCK in Environmental Education.

2. Pedagogical Content Knowledge

PCK represents the combined knowledge of subject content and pedagogy that forms an understanding of how
topics, problems, or issues organized, communicated and used in the teaching according to students’ interests,
abilities (Shulman, 1987; Nor Aishah &Yap, 2002) and prior knowledge (Lilia et al., 2001; Loughran, 2003). This
definition reflects the elements of art in the field of education. PCK is the knowledge base needed by teachers to
guide them to make decisions or take any action in teaching in the classroom (Atay et al., 2010). Mastery of PCK
will lead the teachers to face and address the difficulties of teaching in the classroom, and try to test, evaluate their
teaching practices (Bucat, 2004) by answering basic didactical questions.

3. Methodology

In the process to develop an instrument to measure teachers’ PCK in Environmental Education, five phases were
involved. The phases were:

3.1 Phase 1: Identifying indicators or constructs of PCK

We first started the study by reviewing and analyzing the literature for constructs that formed the concept of
PCK. From various conceptions given by the scholars, we synthesize our own conception about the constructs to
represent the scope of PCK needed by teachers in order to teach Environmental Education in classroom.

3.2 Phase 2: Developing items for each construct

Items then were developed for each construct. At first, the total number of items developed was 87 items.
However, this number was reduced after reliability test was conducted.

3.3 Phase 3: Conducting reliability test

176 Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed Abdullah and Lilia Halim / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 9 (2010) 174–178

The instrument was piloted with 50 secondary science teachers. Data was analyzed using SPSS 11.5. According
to Chua (2006), the items considered to have strong correlation between items when the alpha value for the
construct is above 0.60. Several items were deleted to ensure each construct ranged in this value.

3.4 Phase 4: Checking items validity

The face and content validity of the instrument was performed by an expert in science pedagogy and
environmental education respectively.

3.5 Phase 5: Improving the items

Items that had low correlation values but are considered important were not removed instead the language of the
items was improved for better readability.

4. Result and Discussion

PCK is one of the important knowledge field needed by teacher for teaching any disciplines to their students.
Under PCK itself, teachers need to be acquainted with particular knowledge. Difference scholars have their own
ideas in explaining constructs that form PCK concept. According to Gess-Newsome (1999), PCK comprises of
overlapping of numerous knowledge fields such as content knowledge, context knowledge and pedagogical
knowledge. Gess- Newsome views teaching as an action from the integration of knowledge across all these three
constructs. For Carlsen (1999), PCK consist of four constructs, which are (a) students’ general misconception; (b)
specific curriculum knowledge; (c) teaching strategies for specific topic; and (d) teaching objectives. Tuan et al.
(2000) and Jang et al. (2009) have almost similar opinion regarding the constructs of PCK. They listed out
components of PCK to be subject matter knowledge, knowledge of teaching objectives and context, instructional
and concept representation strategies, and knowledge on students as the area of knowledge in PCK. de Jong (2009)
further adds knowledge on evaluation strategies knowledge as one of components of PCK. This study, adopts a
comprehensive view of PCK namely adopting the components of PCK delineated by Tuan et al. (2000) and Jang et
al. (2009) along with the knowledge of evaluation strategies as teachers’ PCK in Environmental Education.
In term of item development, we build them upon consideration of Malaysian Environmental Education concepts
stated by Curriculum Development Center (1998). However, items on environmental issues were referred to the
Environmental Education Prototype by Hungerford et al. (1994). For the first two construct, the items were in the
form of multi-choice questions. Each item has five choices of answer. Last choice answer for every item is “I do not
know the answer for this question.” This option of answer is given to differentiate between teachers’ knowledge and
their misconception of the items. For the other three constructs, items were developed using the Likert’s scale. The
range of the scale was from one to five (1=Never; 2= Very rare; 3= Rarely; 4= Often; 5= Very often). Teachers were
asked to rate the statements according to their practice. As stated by Schmidt (1996), teachers’ practices in teaching
Environmental Education is influenced by their level of knowledge.
In the third phase, alpha values for each construct calculated and shown as in Table 1.

Table 1. Result of reliability test (n=50)

Construct N of items Alpha Cronbach

Curriculum knowledge 10 0.2133
Subject matter knowledge 44 0.8844
Knowledge of students 8 0.9231
Teaching strategies knowledge 17 0.9386
Knowledge of teaching and learning evaluation 7 0.9246
 Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed Abdullah and Lilia Halim / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 9 (2010) 174–178 177

According to Chua (2006) when the alpha value is lower than 0.6, particular items under the construct must be
deleted until they reach that value. Based on Table 1, the first construct is the only one which does not reach the
suggested rate. In order to increase the alpha value for this construct, four items were deleted. After these items were
deleted, the alpha value was 0.5913. Even though this value is lower than 0.600, all six items left were considered
important and will be improved.
For the construct related to ‘Subject Matter Knowledge’, even though the Cronbach value is high, the researchers
felt it was necessary to reduce the number of items. This is because teachers are not willing to answer lengthy
questionnaire as being observed during the pilot study. Their high commitment to their job and packed class-
schedule might be the barrier for them to cooperate to this study. So, 22 items from this construct were deleted.
Items deleted were selected based on the lowest value of corrected item-total correlation. Finally, the total number
of items left in this instrument is 60 items. So, the estimation time for teachers to complete the questionnaire is 60
minutes.
For the purpose of face and construct validity, opinion by a professor in Science PCK field and an expert in
Environmental Education field were obtained. Based on their opinion, spelling error corrected; items sentences
simplify to make sure teachers could understand the questions; and to ensure that the instrument measure what it
should be measuring.
Based on these studies, there are several things that can be considered to improve the instrument. This study only
adopts a part of the Classical Model in developing the instrument. According to Barron (2004), there are six phases
in the development of an instrument. The phases are: (i) choosing a domains and indicators; (ii) develop a prototype
of instrument; (iii) piloting prototype instrument and get feedback; (iv) determine the construct validity of
instruments; (v) determine the validity of the contents of instruments; and (vi) determine the reliability of the
instrument. This suggests that other than using Alpha Cronbach method to determine the instrument reliability, the
items in the instrument should be tested using the factorial analysis test to determine the constructs validity. The
factorial analysis test will ensure that the items developed are arranged according to the appropriate constructs
(Chua, 2009).

5. Conclusion

This study has produced an instrument that can measure the level of teachers’ PCK in Environmental Education.
Several considerations were made during the instrument development process. The number of items was reduced to
enhance teachers’ commitment to cooperate in answering the questionnaire in the actual study. In addition, this
instrument not only can be used to identify what teachers know and what teachers do not know, but also to identify
teachers’ misconception especially regarding their subject matter knowledge and knowledge about the context.
Finally, this instrument could contribute to studies on teachers’ professional development. Gaps in teachers’
knowledge that is identified can be used as guidelines for planning a more effective Environmental Education
programs for teachers.

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