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Literary Review:
Scholarly Article A Complete Circuit is a Complete Circle: Exploring the Potential of Case
Materials and Methods to Develop Teachers Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Content
Knowledge of Science by K.R. Daehler and M. Shinohara
February 6, 2015
Sarah Jones (Wooden)

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for

TED 690: Capstone Course
National University
Dr. Stacia Levy

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Introduction
Authors: Kirsten R. Daehler and Mayumi Shinohara
Title: A Complete Circuit is a Complete Circle
Subtitle: Exploring the Potential of Case Materials and Methods to Develop Teachers Content
Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Science
Publisher: Research in Science Education Journal, Volume 31, 276-288
Year: 2001
Reviewer: Sarah Jones (Wooden), National University
This article from the journal Research in Science Education discusses the link between
science teachers content knowledge and their ability to translate that knowledge to students in a
way that is comprehensible to them. Through three separate group discussions with groups of
elementary teachers, the researchers were able to discern that these discussions of a single lesson
on simple electrical circuits helped teachers to: grow and refine their content knowledge,
discover what would make the content more or less difficult for their students, and analyzed
potential strategies for improving their instruction to enhance students comprehension of the
content. The article makes a case for the in-depth analysis of different science cases in order
for teachers to accomplish the aforementioned goals. After reading the article, I would tend to
agree with the researchers that these case analyses really allow teachers to dig deep into the
content and its subsequent instruction, improving their teaching of it in the future.

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Review
In order for a teacher to be able to help students learn traditionally difficult-tocomprehend content areas, the teacher must have a deep understanding of the content and a
foresight into what makes the content particularly difficult for students. This article is aimed
specifically at elementary school teachers, but is certainly applicable to a similar degree for
secondary school teachers as well as the aforementioned necessity certainly still applies. The
researchers used a small sample size of 3 separate groups of 18 total teachers, but they did spend
a significant amount of time in discussion with the teachers in each group and received a wealth
of positive feedback from the teachers.
The teachers were led through case discussions about simple electrical circuits and why a
seemingly easy-to-understand topic tends to cause difficulties for students. Through discussion,
its clear that the teachers are able to identify small ways that they can improve upon their
instruction and have that improvement trickle down to students ability to learn about circuits. As
I am in my first year of teaching, I will readily admit that Ive been surprised at times by what is
difficult for my students to comprehend and sometimes feel at a loss as to what I can say or do
differently to help them. By reading this article, I can see that discussion with my fellow
teachers, or even bringing a discussion to the web and reaching out to other educators, would be
very beneficial to new teachers such as myself.
Another important point brought up by the article is that teachers must be comfortable
with the content before they can teach it well and ensure their students understand. This is
another point to which I can readily agree, having experienced this necessity myself in my
general science class. With a degree in biology, I took only the required courses in physical

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science and as such have found myself having to re-learn or expand upon my learning in order to
teach my students what is required by the general science curriculum. The article illustrates that
this integrated case approach can result in learning experiences where teachers collaboratively
make sense of challenging science concepts...Then, within the same discussion, teachers are also
able to articulate what makes [the topic] especially hard for students, thus demonstrating a
sophisticated level of pedagogical content knowledge (pg. 284-285).
By including full quoted portions of discussions between teachers, the article clearly
shows how rich and in-depth science discussions can get when they are set up around a specific
case and teaching topic. The researchers do an excellent job of showing the value of discussions
between and among practicing teachers, and also go so far as to suggest other ways that teachers
could improve their content knowledge (university courses, discussions with experts, etc.).
Though lengthy, the article is easy to read and does not get bogged down in technical language,
making it more practically useful to busy educators such as myself.