Emotions emerging during the analysis of pedagogical content knowledge on electric field

Abstract This study deals with the affective domain integrated with the personal and social history of teachers, and their beliefs and cognitive representations. This defines the shape of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) when teachers teach and plan a concept. Our study analyzes the emotions declared by two high school teachers in a qualitative study on the development of pedagogical content knowledge in the case of teaching the electric field. The array of emotions is an indicator of coincidences or discrepancies between PCK components, and the influence of decisions taken by the teacher. The most conflictive aspects of content in emotional terms are overlapping electric fields, and forces and the electro-kinetic relationship. Finally, the causes of both, positive and negative, are related to curriculum and content knowledge.