Student teachers’ views on content knowledge of environmental issues in biological and geoscience subject matters

Subject content knowledge (SCK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) are key components of teacher competence that affect teaching and students’ learning and thinking about the future. In this study, SCK and PCK were analyzed from Finnish and Spanish (n = 360) primary school student teachers’ (PSTs) answers using a questionnaire that included environmental problems and teaching sustainability. The answers were analyzed with theoretically guided deductive and inductive content analyses. The PSTs considered it important to teach factual, conceptual, methodological and metacognitive knowledge and skills for solving local, regional and global environmental problems. Critical and evaluative knowledge also appeared, but in rather few answers. The results are discussed regarding the meaning of SCK and PCK and a powerful knowledge of science disciplines, such as biology and the geosciences.