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<p>Teacher explanations are often viewed as monologic instructional methods associated with authoritative classroom discourse. This study challenges this assumption by examining how Life Sciences teachers’ mobilisation of Topic-Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TSPCK) components within explanations shapes subsequent classroom interaction. Drawing on a qualitative single embedded case study of three experienced Grade 11 Life Sciences teachers in South Africa teaching population ecology, I analysed nine video-recorded lessons to explore how explanations function as pedagogical and interactional resources. Teacher explanations were analysed through four TSPCK components, which include learner prior knowledge, representations, what is difficult to teach, and curricular saliency. The fifth component, conceptual teaching strategies, was treated as emergent from their integration and was not coded as a separate category. Classroom interaction following the prompt embedded in explanations was examined for dialogic interaction patterns and categorised as knowledge-sharing or argumentative. The findings reveal that dialogic interaction emerged irrespective of the nature of the prompt (open-ended questions, closed-ended questions, or instructions) when explanations foregrounded and integrated multiple TSPCK components. In such cases, learners appropriated, re-voiced, and transformed the pedagogical and conceptual resources embedded in explanations, particularly representations and key conceptual distinctions, to justify claims, challenge peers, and extend lines of reasoning. I argue that teacher explanations function as framing devices that establish shared semiotic resources and discursive affordances, enabling heightened dialogic interaction beyond the effects of prompt type alone. These findings extend TSPCK research by empirically demonstrating how explanations mediate classroom discourse. I highlight implications for science teacher professional development that integrate explanatory practices with dialogic teaching.</p>

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Examining the nature of biology teacher explanations and resulting student heightened interaction: A topic-specific PCK analysis approach

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年8月5日

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  • Hlologelo Climant Khoza

摘要

Teacher explanations are often viewed as monologic instructional methods associated with authoritative classroom discourse. This study challenges this assumption by examining how Life Sciences teachers’ mobilisation of Topic-Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TSPCK) components within explanations shapes subsequent classroom interaction. Drawing on a qualitative single embedded case study of three experienced Grade 11 Life Sciences teachers in South Africa teaching population ecology, I analysed nine video-recorded lessons to explore how explanations function as pedagogical and interactional resources. Teacher explanations were analysed through four TSPCK components, which include learner prior knowledge, representations, what is difficult to teach, and curricular saliency. The fifth component, conceptual teaching strategies, was treated as emergent from their integration and was not coded as a separate category. Classroom interaction following the prompt embedded in explanations was examined for dialogic interaction patterns and categorised as knowledge-sharing or argumentative. The findings reveal that dialogic interaction emerged irrespective of the nature of the prompt (open-ended questions, closed-ended questions, or instructions) when explanations foregrounded and integrated multiple TSPCK components. In such cases, learners appropriated, re-voiced, and transformed the pedagogical and conceptual resources embedded in explanations, particularly representations and key conceptual distinctions, to justify claims, challenge peers, and extend lines of reasoning. I argue that teacher explanations function as framing devices that establish shared semiotic resources and discursive affordances, enabling heightened dialogic interaction beyond the effects of prompt type alone. These findings extend TSPCK research by empirically demonstrating how explanations mediate classroom discourse. I highlight implications for science teacher professional development that integrate explanatory practices with dialogic teaching.