TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE IN IMPLEMENTING TEACHING SCENARIOS ON THE PRINCIPLE OF PULLEY SYSTEMS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This article examines the teaching and learning of pulley systems at Benin Secondary School. It is a case study whose main objective is to analyze the professional knowledge of physics teachers in order to identify barriers to learning and draw the necessary conclusions. The research is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with two physics teachers, drawing on the typology of professional knowledge proposed by Shulman (1986, 1987, 2007), adopted by Grossman (1990) and expanded upon by Magnusson, Krajcik and Borko (2012), which enables the identification of the knowledge that teachers must draw upon in order to teach a given scientific subject effectively: subject-specific content knowledge (CC), general pedagogical knowledge (CP) and content-specific pedagogical knowledge (PCK). The results primarily highlight a partial mastery of subject-specific content relating to pulleys and limited use of experimental approaches, which are likely to restrict pupils’ understanding. The discussion highlights the need to incorporate more practical activities, even those using recycled materials, to reinforce learning. The study concludes that initial and continuing professional development for physics teachers on the epistemology of subject-specific content is important, and proposes ways to improve the teaching of pulleys in the Beninese context.