Exploring Junior High School English Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge(TPACK)

With the increasing popularity of information technology in foreign language teaching,teachers’ ability to deeply integrate technology into English teaching has become a hot topic in foreign language teaching research in the digital age.Koehler and Mishra(2005)put forward the framework of Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge(TRACK),which has attracted extensive attention of international and domestic researchers.By reviewing the literature,the author found that there are relatively few researches focus on English teachers’ TPACK in Chinese context,and most of the research objects are pre-service teachers,lacking the research on TPACK of in-service English teachers.Besides,given the different environments and educational resources in urban and rural areas of China,the current situation and differences of TPACK between urban and rural English teachers need to be further explored.To better understand junior high school English teachers’ TPACK in urban and rural areas,this study put forward the following questions: 1.What is the current situation of junior high school English teachers’ TPACK in urban and rural areas? 2.Do urban and rural teachers’ TPACK vary in terms of age,gender,professional title,teaching experience,and educational degree? If yes,what are the differences? 3.What are the urban and rural teachers’ perceptions of TPACK? 4.What factors influence the development of urban and rural teachers’ TPACK? Firstly,this study used a scale adapted from Archambault et al.(2009)and Schmidt et al.(2009)to investigate the current situation of 245 urban and rural English teachers’ TPACK and the differences of TPACK in terms of demographic information.Quantitative data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0.Secondly,semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 6 junior high school English teachers to understand their perceptions of TPACK and explore the factors that influence teachers’ TPACK.Results from the survey questionnaire suggested the overall TPACK level of urban English teachers is significantly higher than that of rural English teachers.Urban and rural teachers show higher scores in content knowledge(CK),pedagogical knowledge(PK)and pedagogical content knowledge(PCK)than technological knowledge(TK),technological pedagogical knowledge(TPK),technological content knowledge(TCK),and technological pedagogical content knowledge(TPCK).The mean score of rural teachers in each dimension is significantly lower than that of urban teachers,especially TK,with the largest difference.From the perspective of demographic information,urban English teachers’ TPACK level is significantly different between male and female teachers,namely,male teachers have significantly higher TPACK levels than female teachers,while such a significant gender difference was not found among rural English teachers.Rural and urban English teachers’ TPACK levels were not significantly different in terms of their ages and professional titles.Both rural and urban English teachers’ TPACK levels vary significantly in terms of teaching experience and educational degrees,to be specific,teachers with 11-15 years of teaching experience have the highest TPACK level,and teachers’ TPACK level is directly proportional to the educational degrees.Semi-structured in-depth interviews with six junior high school English teachers found that English teachers believe that TPACK is very important in teaching.They have mastered basic PK,CK,TK,although variations in these dimensions exist.However,they generally think that their ability to deeply integrate technology into English teaching(TPACK)is insufficient.Urban English teachers have more access to various educational technologies than rural teachers.The technical conditions in rural areas have greatly affected the development of rural English teachers’ TPACK.The main factors influencing urban and rural teachers’ TPACK include internal factors,such as technology self-efficacy,attitudes on technology-assisted teaching,technostress,self-improvement in teaching;and external factors,such as technical facilitating conditions;the influence of significant others,and technology-related training.This empirical study shows the TPACK level of junior high school English teachers in China,enriches people’s understanding of the TPACK theory,provides data support for English education and training in China and implications for the formulation of relevant English educational technology policies.