Experienced Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Teaching Acid–base Chemistry

摘要

We investigated the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of nine experienced chemistry teachers. The teachers took part in a teacher training course on students’ difficulties and the use of models in teaching acid–base chemistry, electrochemistry, and redox reactions. Two years after the course, the teachers were interviewed about their PCK of (1) students’ difficulties in understanding acid–base chemistry and (2) models of acids and bases in their teaching practice. In the interviews, the teachers were asked to comment on authentic student responses collected in a previous study that included student interviews about their understanding of acids and bases. Further, the teachers drew story-lines representing their level of satisfaction with their acid–base teaching. The results show that, although all teachers recognised some of the students’ difficulties as confusion between models, only a few chose to emphasise the different models of acids and bases. Most of the teachers thought it was sufficient to distinguish clearly between the phenomenological level and the particle level. The ways the teachers reflected on their teaching, in order to improve it, also differed. Some teachers reflected more on students’ difficulties; others were more concerned about their own performance. Implications for chemistry (teacher) education are discussed.