A Study Of The EFL Student Teachers' Views On Pre-service Teacher Knowledge

The attentions to teacher knowledge are highly paid in recent years. Teacher's role will become facilitators, not repositories of knowledge. With the development of pedagogy and curriculum, the perfect teacher knowledge structure should be required. This study focuses on whether course-based knowledge facilitates student teachers to achieve teaching practicum and student teacher's views on pre-service teacher knowledge.This study investigates student teachers'knowledge in their teaching practicum. Three problems are focused on teacher knowledge in this study: student teachers'sources to gain knowledge about EFL teaching, student teachers'knowledge transformation during their teaching practicum in middle school, and the extent that university courses facilitate them to understand the complexity of language teaching. 154 pre-service EFL teachers are questioned by questionnaire and interview during and after their initial teaching practicum.The result suggests that student teachers knowledge sources are primary course-based education and reflection; there are many inconsistencies in their real classroom teaching, especially in pedagogical reasoning skills and decision making; and their prior knowledge particular in course-based knowledge facilitates their teaching during teaching practicum. The findings of this study highlight the importance of critical thinking and the normal pedagogical courses and support the need for pre-service teacher education programs to provide opportunities for student teachers to practice and critical thinking skills engaging with practice.Some suggestions are given for pre-service teacher education at last, such as: utilizing problem solving strategy, rethinking about teaching, developing student teachers autonomic learning abilities, and designing more specific curriculum standards. These suggestions can facilitate student teachers enrich their procedural knowledge.