Secondary School Chinese Language Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge on Reading and the Relationship to Classroom Instruction

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has gained attention in the western academics since 80s. Researchers have investigated the features of PCK and its affections to teaching in different disciplines. PCK is a kind of knowledge uniquely possessed by teachers for teaching particular subjects. Through PCK, teachers can transform their subject knowledge which is comprehensible to their students. Therefore, PCK reflects the profession of teachers.;This study investigated the secondary school Chinese Language teachers' PCK on reading and its relationship to their instruction under the context of the Chinese Language Curriculum reform in Hong Kong. The past Chinese Language Curriculum in Hong Kong specifying prescribed texts which is essentially different to the current one which is competency oriented and open learning materials. It is a vast change to the teachers who have undergone from the past curriculum to the current one. They must have a new realization to the contents, materials and pedagogy of the current curriculum, and have to make a paradigm shift in their teaching.;According to the above situation, this study adopted a qualitative approach to investigate teachers' PCK on reading and the relationship to classroom instruction. Six experienced secondary school Chinese Language teachers from three different schools were identified as research subjects via purposeful sampling and both interview and classroom observation methods were adopted for data collection. Five of them came from two schools which developed their own teaching materials, while the other one belonged to the third school employed textbooks.;The result revealed that, the teachers' PCK on reading was comprised of two related components which were representation and the knowledge of students learning. Besides, the teachers' PCK on reading were highly related to their knowledge of content, the knowledge of curriculum materials and the methods of teaching. Through their PCK, content knowledge was the object for transformation. Since the current Chinese Language Curriculum just provided a framework for the teachers to design their own school-based curriculum, therefore curriculum materials and teaching methods must be put to use by the teachers in their teaching. As teachers' PCK on reading amalgamates both content and pedagogy and in view of the students, so the teachers adopted the most appropriate representations to transform the content knowledge and made it more comprehensible to their students.;The results also revealed that the teachers' PCK on reading was related to their classroom instruction, and the teachers used a variety of representations according to their function in representing the contents. Moreover, the teachers showed different level of PCK in different topics, as some of the teachers applied representations which did not related to the contents and met their students' needs, so the teaching was ineffective. Finally, whether the teachers employed textbooks or accommodated their own curriculum, showed no sign of relationship to their PCK.