Teacher professional development in public schools: teaching cases as a formative and investigative strategy

Abstract

This project aims to promote and investigate construction processes of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Shulman, 1986, 1987) built by teachers from the public elementary school system, which is a central component of the knowledge base for teaching. Teaching cases are focused as formative and investigative strategies in promoting processes of how teachers learn to teach and to grow in a professional way. The research is expressed from four interconnected questions: A- How are the participants' construction processes of Pedagogical Content Knowledge characterized? B- What are the characteristics of the construction of Pedagogical Content Knowledge in its different areas and disciplines, that is, how do the participants transform the contents of their areas/disciplines into teaching content?; C- What types of reflections are externalized by the participants when systematizing the process of building Pedagogical Content Knowledge in a teaching case that may be used as a strategy in teaching training processes?; D- How do the teaching cases - here considered as formative and investigative tools - contribute to the improvement of teaching from the participants' perspective? Such qualitative research of a constructive-collaborative nature involving the interaction of professionals from university and two public schools, assumes sources of data from interviews (initial and throughout the process), development of teaching and learning experiences, analysis and construction of teaching cases, elaboration of portfolios, reflective diaries, among others. The research is distinct by being open planning, which suggests theoretical-methodological decisions based on the participants' training needs and on the demands that they face in the daily life of public schools. This implies that themes and other forms of data collection will be decided procedurally, collectively, via university and public-school professionals. In this project, the teaching cases are considered the materialization of teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge. (AU)