Prospective Teachers' Explaining Skills: The Case of Business Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 54
  In Roundtable Session: Inquiry Into Preservice Teachers' Knowledge Development

Abstract

Teacher education programs at universities play a major role in the development of (prospective) teachers’ knowledge. In this paper, we examine one central facet of prospective business teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge: the ability to explain content to students. By combining data from a quantitative test instrument (N = 1,152 teacher candidates) and a qualitative video study (N = 48 teacher candidates), we are able to offer multi-perspective insights into prospective teachers’ knowledge base and abilities. We find significant correlations between teacher candidates’ explaining skills and their content knowledge. Moreover, the results show that prospective teachers struggle with the task of explaining content adequately. Implications for teacher education programs in business and economic education are discussed.

Authors

• Stefanie Berger, University of Mannheim

• Juergen Seifried, University of Mannheim

• Eveline Wuttke, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University