Vol.:(0123456789) Discover Education (2024) 3:17 | https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-024-00104-y Discover Education Research Integration of topic‑specific pedagogical content knowledge components in secondary school science teachers’ reflections on biology lessons Thumah Mapulanga 1  · Yaw Ameyaw 2  · Gilbert Nshogoza 3  · Anthony Bwalya 4 Received: 13 August 2023 / Accepted: 9 February 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 OPEN Abstract Teachers’ reflections on their practice are a powerful tool for measuring and supporting their professional knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge is one of the most influential domains of teacher professional knowledge. This multiple- case study investigated the topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (TSPCK) components that Zambian second- ary school science teachers integrate when reflecting on biology lessons. Three teachers from the same school were observed teaching a biology lesson and attended post-observation interviews. Data were mainly collected through lesson plans, lesson observation field notes and post-observation interviews. The data were analysed using in-depth analysis of explicit TSPCK, enumerative and constant comparative approaches. TSPCK maps were constructed to illustrate each teachers’ integration of TSPCK components. The results revealed four features about the integration of TSPCK compo- nents: (a) None of the teachers depended solely on a single TSPCK component as they integrated other components (b) The components curricular saliency, students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions, and conceptual teaching strategies were central in the TSPCK maps of all the teachers, while representations and analogies, and what make the topic easy/ difficult to teach/learn were least integrated (c) All teachers had different pairs of reciprocal connections among TSPCK components, and (d) All teachers had different pairs of most integrated components. The implications of these findings for science and teacher education research were presented and discussed. It was concluded that teachers’ reflections revealed the integration between TSPCK components and showed them differently. The study recommends investigating teachers’ reflections over several lessons and tracking any changes in their TSPCK integration. Keywords Topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (TSPCK) · Integration of TSPCK components · Reflection on biology lessons · Secondary school science teachers 1 Introduction Recent research on teacher knowledge has focused on Shulman’s [1] seminal work on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Shulman [1] described PCK as a knowledge domain that is specific to teachers/educators—an amalgam of content and pedagogy that is uniquely the province of teachers, their own special form of professional understand- ing. Gess-Newsome [2] asserts that (personal) PCK is the knowledge of, reasoning behind, and planning for teaching * Thumah Mapulanga, thumahm@gmail.com | 1 African Centre of Excellence for Innovative Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science, University of Rwanda, College of Education, Kayonza, Rwanda. 2 Department of Biology Education, Faculty of Science Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. 3 Department of Academics, Research and Extension, Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture, Bugesera, Rwanda. 4 Department of Life Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University, Kabwe, Zambia.