Because pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) includes teachers’ understanding of how students learn, or fail to learn, specific subject matter, the development of PCK is an important goal to focus on in professional development programs. The research literature clearly indicates the complex nature of PCK as a form of teachers’ professional knowledge that is highly topic, person, and situation specific. This implies that professional development programs aimed at the development of teachers’ PCK cannot be limited to supplying teachers with input, such as examples of expert teaching of subject matter. Instead, such programs should be closely aligned to teachers’ professional practice and, in addition to providing teachers with specific input, should include opportunities to enact certain instructional strategies and to reflect, individually and collectively, on their experiences.

Developing teacher knowledge, skills, and confidence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is critical to supporting a culture of innovation and productivity across the population. Such capacity building is also necessary for the development of STEM literacies involving the ability to identify, apply, and integrate concepts from STEM domains toward understanding complex problems, and innovating to solve them. However, a lack of visible models of STEM integration has been highlighted by teachers as a challenge to successfully implementing integrated STEM education in schools. Problem Based Learning (PBL) has been well-established in higher education contexts as an approach to learning in the STEM disciplines and may present an effective way to integrate knowledge and skills across STEM disciplines in school-based STEM education and support the development of students as capable, self-directed learners. However, if PBL is to effectively contribute to STEM education in schools and build teacher capacity to teach STEM, then this approach needs to be better understood. This paper aims to generate a set of principles for supporting a PBL model of STEM education in schools based on insights from the literature and expert focus groups of PBL professionals. Four principles of PBL emerged from the data analysis: (a) flexible knowledge, skills, and capabilities; (b) active and strategic metacognitive reasoning; (c) collaboration based on intrinsic motivation; and (d) problems embedded in real and rich contexts. The study outcomes provide evidence-informed support for teachers who may be considering the value of adopting a PBL approach in school-based STEM education.

While the development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is considered to be a goal of teacher education, teaching about the concept itself is an unusual practice. In this case study, we explore the outcomes when a teacher educator explicitly introduces student‐teachers to ideas about PCK through the use of a CoRes and PaP‐eRs conceptualisation. The case study explores how, through this purposeful use of PCK in a pre‐service science teacher programme, student‐teachers’ thinking about their teaching and about their development as science teachers is shaped.