Pedagogical content knowledge for teaching of nature of science and critical thinking in initial primary teacher education

Preparing future teachers to contribute to the scientific literacy of society requires working their capacities to teach the nature of science (NOS) and critical thinking (CT) from the earliest stages of training. This work presents the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for the teaching of these elements developed in a sample of pre-service primary teachers, after participating in an intervention. Data were collected through the Content Representation, and a rubric was designed to characterise some aspects of the PCK. Results show that the intervention contributed to acquire the knowledge required for integrating NOS and CT in the classroom, especially for the latter one, recognise the importance to plan the NOS and CT in science and feel confident when planning teaching in this respect. The key results are discussed identifying challenges and drawing some recommendations for teacher professional development.