One of the important aspects of preservice teacher preparation is the route which the preservice teacher training follows. They either go through Bachelor of Education or Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGCE) route. In the former preservice teachers go through 4 years where they are taught content of specialisation and pedagogies while in the latter teachers training focuses on pedagogies which following a general degree that included studying the subjects that provide adequate disciplinary learning needed for specialisation. With PGCE the training takes one full year for full time or 2 years for part-time preservice teachers. The focus of this study is with those taking PGCE route. There are many assumptions made regarding this group. Firstly, one of the admission criteria into the programme is the evidence of sound content knowledge for the chosen teaching subject. While specialising in biology in general is considered sufficient for teaching the subject the challenge is that the preservice teachers may have limited content knowledge about some of areas did not cover during undergraduate Degree. The term content knowledge is used here to refer to concepts and facts of subject matter knowledge.

The importance of content knowledge in teaching cannot be overemphasized. Many researchers have highlighted its importance and how it affects teaching. Teachers with good understanding of the content knowledge have abilities that make them transform such content better. Such teachers also ask appropriate and challenging questions to their students while they also respond to the aspects considered critical during the lesson. These teachers also choose appropriate teaching strategies and have awareness of what is likely to be challenging to learners when planning their lessons. However, if teachers themselves have personal misconceptions about certain concepts they are unlikely to be effective when teaching such concepts.

This was a qualitative case study focusing on 15 preservice teachers enrolled for PGCE at one university in South Africa in 2023. The participants were familiar with the use of concept maps. The sources of data were the concept maps that these preservice teachers drew as part of the assessment given to them during the semester. These concept maps were analysed to get their content knowledge about circulatory system.

Their concept map structure was classified as either chain, spoke and network. 60% of participants drew spoke concept maps, 13% linear while 27% drew network structured maps. A chain structure is an indicative of rote learning while spoke structure is an indication of superficial knowledge. Network structure on the other hand showing most links between the concepts, is an indication of sophisticated knowledge provided the links are accurate. Some of the concept maps had incorrect links of the concepts, an indication of gaps in preservice teachers’ content knowledge. It was therefore the finding of this study that some of PGCE preservice teachers lack content knowledge needed to teach circulator system.

Keywords: Content Knowledge, Preservice Teachers, Concept Maps.