Supporting pre-service life sciences teachers’ development of pedagogical content knowledge using pre-recorded teaching videos

Abstract

This article presents a study were the purpose was to develop pre-service biology teachers’ PCK sing pre-recorded videos.  The pre-service teachers were then given access to the teaching videos to individually produce individual reflections on the videos and then discuss these videos in groups. This was followed whole-class discussion. The pre-service teachers planned a second lesson on the same topic. Data from the narratives, group and whole-class discussions were analysed through narrative analysis and analysis of narratives. Teaching videos and lesson plans were scored using adapted PCK rubrics. Findings indicate that the pre-service teachers’ PCK scores improved in the second lesson plans in terms of the PCK components. However, their knowledge of conceptual teaching strategies seems to have improved as a result of whole-class discussions. These findings are discussed and recommendations regarding the use of pre-recorded videos to support the development of pre-service teachers’ PCK are made.