Developing pedagogical content knowledge of science teachers through action research: A case study from Pakistan

The aim of this study is to analyze the action research undertaken by Khan as a teacher researcher in a private school as part of the degree requirement of his M.Ed. program in Teacher Education at the Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development. The purpose of this analysis undertaken by the first author and supervisor of the study in collaboration with Khan was to understand the development of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) of the teacher researcher through action research in a science classroom in the context of Pakistan. Khan taught the concepts of heat and temperature using an inquiry based pedagogy to grade 9 physics class and also examined his own practice of this innovation using action research. Using Carlsen's concept of PCK as the lens for analysis of the research report written by Khan the first author finds that transforming his understanding of the topic to teach with the indicated instructional strategy required him to transform his own understanding of science content. The findings also indicate that the requirement of cumulative testing was a barrier to the implementation of innovative pedagogy in the school context.