PRE-SERVICE TEACHER'S CONTENT AND PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE IN ALVAN IKOKU FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, OWERRI

Abstract

The study investigated pre-service teacher's content and pedagogical knowledge in Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri. The study adopted the survey research design. Simple random sampling technique was used to select three schools (Languages, Science and Education) from schools in Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri. From each school, 110 pre-service teachers in 300 level were randomly selected, making a total of 330 pre-service teachers. Two research instruments were used for data collection: Pre-service teachers' Content Knowledge Questionnaire (r=0.84) and Preservice teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge Questionnaire (r=0.78). Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency count, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Findings of the study revealed that the majority of the pre-service teachers (78.0%) had a high content knowledge and 68.1 % had a high pedagogical content knowledge. It could be concluded from the study that pre-service teacher's content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge were high. Based on the findings, it was recommended that lecturers should adopt methods of teaching that will enhance preservice teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Preservice teachers should not only have content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of the courses they study but allow them to reflect on their teaching when they are fully employed to teach.