Pedagogical content knowledge in school economics

Abstract

How can creative teaching in economics education be identified and explored? A construct that assists understanding in this area is pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). It represents the merging of content and pedagogy to understand how particular topics or lessons are organised, represented, and adapted to students’ diverse interests and abilities. This paper draws upon the author's research that explores teaching and learning in school economics to discuss this epistemological concept that blends the traditionally separated knowledge bases of content and pedagogy. The research involved interviewing and observing school economics teachers and student focus group interviews. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data. In this paper, I discuss the emergent theme of how teachers communicated their understanding of subject knowledge by developing their PCK to engage their students in learning. The considerations raised can assist lecturers, teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in enacting the teaching and learning process in economics and other disciplines.