Teachers’ knowledge that promote students’ conceptual understanding

It has been argued that effective pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) could develop students’ conceptual understanding. However, there is lack of empirical evidence supporting the relationship between PCK and students’ understanding. This qualitative study was conducted to explore the components of teachers’ PCK and other related factors that promote students’ conceptual understanding in the topic of “Respiration” from the perspectives of teachers and students. The findings showed that components of teachers PCK; component of content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, knowledge about students and knowledge of the context contributed to students’ conceptual understanding of “Respiration”. The study also found teachers’ attitudes and teachers’ emotions contributed to students’ understanding. This study showed that with the appropriate teachers’ attitudes and emotions coupled with effective PCK will ensure learning takes place. When learning process occurs, then only conceptual understanding of content can be achieved.