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Knowledge and beliefs of politics teachers at German Gymnasien: findings of a study
[journal article]
Abstract Political didactics is a field that has long resisted examination of teaching efficacy. Of particular importance are questions concerning what teaching personnel know and where their content-based expert knowledge comes from, what is to be taught and how teachers deal with problems in understanding ... view more
Political didactics is a field that has long resisted examination of teaching efficacy. Of particular importance are questions concerning what teaching personnel know and where their content-based expert knowledge comes from, what is to be taught and how teachers deal with problems in understanding content. Teachers’ professional knowledge can be divided into ‘content knowledge’ (CK), ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ (PCK) and pedagogical knowledge. Beliefs regarding teaching and learning processes, pupils have active or passive, receptive or constructive roles ascribed to them. These roles are generally distinguished as the basic positions of constructivist and transmission-based concepts of teaching and learning. This study collected the results for German gymnasium teachers (N=196). 38.6 per cent of respondents were female, on average the age of respondents stands at 43.5 years old (SD=11.4). The assumptions about the structure of subject-specific professional knowledge are checked by comparing a one-dimensional IRT model with various multidimensional ones. The model comparison shows a statistically significant model improvement for the two-dimensional model distinguishing between CK and PCK. PCK can be divided into normative political didactic discourses in one dimension and lessonbased items in a second dimension. Investigation of the structural assumptions shows that politics teachers’ beliefs on teaching and learning can be integrated into overlapping belief syndromes. Cognitive constructivist orientations go hand in hand with greater subject interest, while transmission-based orientations tend to be related to less interest in politics. There is a slightly significant small negative correlation between a constructivist orientation and lesson-based knowledge (LBK). Those who have been teaching for a long time attain lower scores in the subject-specific didactic part of the test. Participation in further training only has an impact on normative and not on LBK.... view less
Keywords
secondary school (Gymnasium); teaching politics; political education; subject teacher; competence; political interest; didactics; Federal Republic of Germany
Classification
Curriculum, Teaching, Didactics
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
professional competence; civic teachers
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
Page/Pages
p. 257-278
Journal
Citizenship Teaching & Learning, 12 (2017) 3
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1386/ctl.12.3.257_1
ISSN
1751-1925
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications