Study the effect of Content Knowledge (CK) on Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) of Photosynthesis in some Elementary Education Teachers Student (Case Study)

The research on teacher development has increased over the past two decades. Based on this, many studies have been done on the content knowledge (CK) and the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of different science teachers, but limited studies have been conducted on the content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of elementary schools science teachers; Especially the topic of photosynthesis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of content knowledge on pedagogical content knowledge of photosynthesis and plant growth in a group of elementary education teachers students at Fatemeh Zahra Campus of Esfahan. The population of the study consisted of 25 students of educational sciences. A questionnaire, preparation of lesson plan and interview were used to collect data. The most student teachers at the end of the first semester and attending science education classes were not very knowledgeable about conceptual problems of students in the field of photosynthesis and they had difficulties to choose the most important concepts. While the same students in the second semester were more effective in understanding the conceptual problems of students, also, none of the students had much experience in teaching science.