EMA 212: Pedagogical Content

Knowledge in Mathematics

Unit 1: The Concept of PCK

Dr. Isaac Benning

Dept. of Maths & ICT Education
Faculty of Science and Technology Education
University of Cape Coast

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 Quote
As we have come to view teaching, it begins with an act of reason,
continues with a process of reasoning, culminates in performances of
imparting, eliciting, involving, or enticing, and is then thought about
some more until the process begin again

Lee S. Shulman (born 1938)

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 Lesson objectives

1. explain the concept of PCK and how its constructs are related.

2. explain the components of Shulman’s model of pedagogical

reasoning.

3. Develop the knowledge and skills of incorporating the concept of

PCK into lesson preparation and enactment.

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 Activity 1: Brainstorming

What competencies do you need to teach

mathematics to senior secondary school
students?

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Four general areas of teacher knowledge

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 General taxonomy of pedagogy content
knowledge
Topic Specific PCK
General PCK Domain specific PCK
Algebra
Discipline Mathematics
Functions
pedagogy History, Arithmetic
Algebraic expression
Mathematics Calculus
Factorisation
English Algebra
Statistics
Geometry

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 Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)

 PCK is proposed by Lee S. Shulman (1986). An American educational psychologist.

 PCK explains how the subject matter (content) of a particular discipline (e. g.,
mathematics) is made comprehensible to learners.
 The PCK framework has three interrelated constructs:

 Pedagogical knowledge (PK)

 Content knowledge (CK)

7  Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)

 Pedagogical Knowledge (PK)

 PK refers to teachers’ knowledge about how to teach a subject matter.

 It is about how to optimise learning situations in the classroom.
 It includes knowledge of students’ learning, instructional methods, different
educational theories and their implications to teaching and learning, and
strategies for assessing student’s learning.
 It involves knowledge about how to use instructional resources.
 It also includes the knowledge of the context classroom settings – the identity,
culture, interest, and potential of the learner.

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 Content Knowledge (CK)

 CK is the deep understanding of the subject matter itself.

 Content knowledge includes the knowledge of concepts, theories,

ideas, and organisational framework.
 It also includes knowledge of evidence and proof, as well as
practices and approaches towards developing such knowledge.
 It includes conjectures, axioms, patterns, and logical argument.

 Teachers must know about the content they are going to teach and
how it differs from various content areas.
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 Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)
 PCK is the teachers’ knowledge adopting pedagogical strategies to make
the specific content/topic more understandable for the learners.
 It includes the understanding of how particular topics, problems, or issues
are organised, presented, and adapted to the diverse interests and abilities of
learners.

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 Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)

 Teachers’ mathematics PCK (MPCK) involves the knowledge of

students’ mathematical thinking and learning with respect to a
particular subject matter.
 PCK often asks the questions: What? How? When? Why?
 Teachers’ mathematical knowledge, pedagogical competence and
reasoning are key to improving students’ mathematics achievement.

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 Shulman’s Model of Pedagogical Reasoning

Shulman created the Model of

Pedagogical Reasoning,
which comprises a cycle of
several activities that a
teacher should complete for
effective teaching.

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 Comprehension

 Teachers need to understand what they teach and how the content
relates to other discipline.

 Teachers need to support students to gain mathematical proficiency :

 conceptual understanding: It involves the understanding of
mathematical concepts, operation, and relation.
 procedural fluency: It involves the skills in carrying out
procedures flexibly, accurately, efficiently, and appropriately.

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 Comprehension

 strategic competence: It involves the ability to formulate,

represent, and solve mathematical problems.
 adaptive reasoning: It’s about developing a capacity for logical
thought, reflection, explanation, and justification.
 productive disposition : It involves developing a habitual
inclination to see mathematics as sensible, useful, and
worthwhile, coupled with a belief in diligence and one’s own
efficacy.

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 Transformation
 It involves teachers’ capacity to transform content knowledge into forms that are pedagogically powerful and
yet adaptive to the variety of student’s ability and background.
 Transformation involves the following process:
 Preparation: It involves the organisation and interpretation of the subject matter to be taught as well
setting up the learning environment to promote mathematising.
 Representation: The teacher presents ideas in the form of new analogies. The teacher uses appropriate
language and situations to explain the subject matter of mathematics.
 Instructional selection: The teacher selects appropriate instructional methods to promote desired learning
outcomes.
 Adaptation: The teacher chooses mathematical tasks and instructional strategies which cater for different
learning styles.
 Tailoring the adaptation: The teacher selects instructional strategies that enable students build on their
existing knowledge.

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 Instruction
• It comprises the variety of teaching acts:
 Classroom management,
 Presentations,
 Interactions,
 Group work,
 Discipline,
 Humour,
 Questioning, and
 Discovery and inquiry instruction
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 Instruction

• “Effective teachers are good methodologists. This ability does

not come naturally to many teachers. They need to acquire it by
making deliberate effort to develop and practice constantly the
plans they formulate to execute their lesson” (Alorvor, 2012,
p.v).

• This implies that a continuous professional training is useful to

upskill the competences (dispositions, knowledges and skills of
teaching mathematics) of both pre- and in-service teachers.
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 Evaluation
 Teachers need to think about testing and evaluation as an
extension of instruction, not as separate from the instructional
process.

 Evaluation process include:

 Checking for understanding and misconceptions during
interactive teaching.
 Testing students’ understanding at the end of lessons or units.
 Ensuring formative feedback and feedforward from the teacher
and students to monitor the progress of students’ learning in a
specific mathematical task.
 Helping students to learn to self- and peer-assess.
18  Using students’ thinking to sequence mathematics instruction.
 Reflection

• Reflection includes:
 reviewing,
 reconstructing,
 reenacting, and
 critically analysing one’s own teaching

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 New Comprehension
Through acts of “reasoned” and “reasonable teaching”, the teacher
achieves new comprehension of the:
 educational purposes
 subject taught
 students, and
 processes of pedagogy themselves.

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 Activity (Group work)
From the sample lesson plan, identify two
statements/activities that reflect each of the PCK
constructs: PK, CK, and PCK.

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 Conclusion

For a teacher to teach effectively in the classroom,

he or she needs a comprehensive knowledge of
mathematics as well as the knowledge of teaching
and students learning. This knowledge does not
usually come automatically, continuous
professional development is needed to improve
teachers’ classroom decisions.

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