Conceptions of economics pre-service teachers' use of subject knowledge in teaching economics and commerce at secondary schools in Brunei Darussalam

摘要

The research focuses on how economics pre-service teachers use their subjectudknowledge to teach economics and commerce during their teaching practice. Theudresearch highlights the paradoxical nature of economics as a subject discipline and theudinfluence that it can have on pre-service teachers' conceptions of teaching economicsudand commerce. The purpose of this research is to ascertain the importance of subjectudknowledge use in teaching in the Brunei context.udThe research is based upon data collected from ten economics pre-service teachers inudBrunei Darussalam. The methodology of this research is an interpretative approachudwhich specifically aimed at: a) examining pre-service teachers' conceptions ofudeconomics and their conceptions of teaching, b) determining the way pre-serviceudteachers teach economics and commerce in practice, and c) probing the conceptions ofudpre-service teachers in using their specialist subject knowledge when teachingudeconomics and commerce. The data was textually analysed and the analysis revealsudthat the pre-service teachers find difficulty in bridging their knowledge of economicsudand their knowledge of pedagogy when teaching school subjects, economics andudcommerce.udThe research calls for an integration of theory and practice. Teachers need to be madeudaware of their own ontological and epistemological positions for them to gain auddeeper understanding of economics as subject knowledge. The research is significantudfor future research on teachers' development as teachers' subject knowledge isudintegral for their expertise in teaching.