Professional development program to enhance pre-service teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge

Abstract

     This collaborative action research aimed to develop a professional development (PD) program to promote pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for student teachers, to examine the effect of the program and to investigate the factors supporting and impeding the development of PCK. T he participants were 58 student teachers in mathematics teaching, science teaching, and home economics education programs from the Faculty of Education, Kasetsart University in the academic year 2012, 58 cooperating teachers, and 17 supervisors. The data were gathered from classroom observations, focus group interviews, and PCK and PD evaluation forms. Content analysis and descriptive statistics were employed to interpret the data. The results indicated that the program could generally develop the PCK of the participants. Suggested supporting factors were: the student-centered workshop, the good selection and the high quality of the cooperating teachers and supervisors, student teachers’ self motivation, and continuous and instant support. T he factors that hindered the development of the PCK included time constraints, excessive workload, and the lack of familiarity with using a computer and accessing the internet.