Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Education

The concept of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) was introduced by Shulman in 1986 as a distinctive form of teacher knowledge that transcends mere content expertise or general pedagogical skills. Shulman described PCK as “the amalgam of content and pedagogy” that distinguishes the experienced teacher from the content specialist. This conceptualization revolutionized research on teacher knowledge by highlighting the importance of understanding how teachers transform subject matter into forms that are pedagogically sound and accessible to diverse learners. Since Shulman’s seminal work, numerous PCK models have been developed, leading to the Consensus Model of PCK published in 2015 and, subsequently, the Refined Consensus Model of PCK in 2019. Both frameworks move the field beyond static views of teacher knowledge and emphasize the recursive processes through which teachers plan, teach, reflect, and reshape their professional knowledge. Over four decades of PCK research, PCK models have differed in their epistemological grounding, as well as in the components used to represent the structure of the PCK construct.