Analysis of the pedagogical content knowledge of social studies teachers and teacher candidates in the learning theme of science, technology and community

In this study, it was aimed to examine and compare the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of social studies teachers and teacher candidates in the learning theme of science, technology and society at the level of 5th, 6th and 7th. It was used the case study that was qualititative research methods in this study. In this context multi-holistic case study was employed. The research was carried out with seven participants. These participiants were consisted of three social studies teachers who were working in Sakarya in the second term of the 2018-2019 academic year and four teacher candidates who were studying at final years of Social Studies Teaching at Sakarya University Faculty of Education in the same period. The data collection process of the research was carried out in a period of three months between February and April 2019. In order to reveal the pedagogical content knowledge of the participants was used methods as lesson observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis (subject matter knowledge exam, self-assessment forms, lesson plans, field notes) together. All the data collected and made ready by transcribing were subjected to descriptive analysis and determined by considering the PCK components (subject matter knowledge exam, curriculum knowledge, knowledge about student's understanding, teaching strategies knowledge and evaluation information themes). According to the results of the study, social studies teachers and teacher candidates were determined themselves sufficient or partially sufficient in the learning theme of science, technology and community in terms of all PCK components. It was concluded that social studies teachers were better equipped than teacher candidates in terms of subject matter knowledge and program knowledge components due to their experiences in learning theme of science, technology and community. It was determined that all participants had an opinion that students didn't have much difficulty in the learning theme of science, technology and society and students followed certain strategies in case of difficulty. Both social studies teachers and teacher candidates were sensitive to student questions and reactions and acted similarly in terms of understanding knowledge of the student. Both social studies teachers and teacher candidates generally were supported their expressions with technological tools and various materials by using methods such as lecture, question-answer. However, it was concluded that teacher candidates were used more various materials and were performed different activities than teachers in terms of teaching strategies component. Both social studies teachers and teacher candidates were used traditional measurement tools and were made evaluations by asking various questions during the teaching process and at the end of the subject-learning theme. There were deficiencies in all participants in terms of giving feedback to students and recording the evaluation results. In accordance with the findings obtained from the research, various suggestions were made to improve the pedagogical content knowledge of all teachers and teacher candidates.