Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) In Pre-service EFL Teacher Education Curriculum

Influenced by behaviorism in Psychology in the late 1960s,educational researches focused on teachers' behavior instead of teachers' knowledge and belief.These researches described teaching mainly through teachers' observable behavior and skills to investigate the relationship between teachers' behavior and students' learning.The early 1970s witnesses great changes in educational research with the rapid increasing research on teachers' cognition.Since the publication of Wittrock's Handbook of Research on Teaching in 1986,teachers' knowledge became the focus of educational research.When educational research shifts from teachers' behavior to teachers' cognition,according to Calderhead(1996),researches on teachers' cognition has experienced three periods:the first period is about teachers' decision-making,in which teachers' decision-makings are regarded as the bridge between teachers' thinking and behavior.Various methods have been employed to discuss the decisions teachers make,and the effect of these decisions on teaching.Later researchers realize that lots of teachers' mental activities could not be explained by teachers' decision-makings.Then research steps into the second period which extends from teachers' decision-making to perception,thinking,judgment, reflection,and evaluation.And the third period but not the last is research on teachers: knowledge and belief underlying teachers' behavior. PCK proposed by Shulman(1986) is the synthesis of various kinds of knowledge including teachers' knowledge of learners,knowledge of curriculum,knowledge of context,and knowledge of pedagogy.PCK is related to practical situations and specific topics,and it helps teachers choose what and how to present the topics to students.PCK offers a new perspective for researchers to further understand teaching and learning.Many scholars have written about PCK.The aim of this study is to investigate what PCK components needed for teaching English as a foreign language(TEFL),and how these components might be integrated in a meaningful way pre-service EFL teacher education curriculum to contribute to student teachers' PCK development.This study introduces related researches on PCK's definitions and components,and states the guiding role of PCK in teaching as PCK can help transform teachers' subject matter knowledge(SMK) and skills into effective classroom behaviors to realize the combination of teachers' knowledge with classroom teaching.This study also works out a definition of PCK and summarizes its components for EFL teaching.These components include orientations to EFL teaching,knowledge of students,knowledge of curriculum, knowledge of teaching strategies,SMK of English,knowledge of assessments of EFL learning,and knowledge of pedagogy.For EFL student teachers,PCK can help them understand teaching as a profession from all aspects like orientations to teaching, knowledge of curriculum and knowledge of students to lay a good foundation for student teachers' professional development.Pre-service teacher education is the initial stage for teachers' career,and it is the main approach for student teachers acquire and develop their PCK.Thus pre-service teacher education curriculum is expected to provide PCK for student teachers and contribute to PCK development.By analyzing EFL teacher education system and curriculum,this study reveals that SMK still occupies most of the courses,and other components of PCK are not emphasized enough or even ignored in the current curriculum,like knowledge of students,and knowledge of teaching strategies.Moreover, teaching practice,as the main way for student teachers enriching their teaching experience, undergoes little change with regard to the time arrangement and model,which limits student teachers' PCK development.The findings provide implications for pre-service EFL teacher education as well as its curriculum design.Pre-service EFL teacher education curriculum should investigate PCK and its development from the perspectives of knowledge theory and curriculum design as pre-service EFL teacher education is the initial stage for student teachers' teaching career and PCK development.With regard to the relation between the two perspectives, knowledge theory illustrates the ideal PCK structure of EFL teacher from the aspect of should-however,while curriculum design realizes such an ideal structure in the practical aspect.Therefore,the combination of the two perspectives offers reasonable understanding of pre-service EFL teacher education.Curriculum for pre-service EFL teacher education in China has focused on knowledge,specifically on SMK,which most of the course emphasizes language itself like Pronunciation,Grammar,Culture,and Literature.But less emphasis has been laid on other PCK components.Curriculum should encompass not only how to teach SMK.More important it should inform student teachers of how to arouse learners' interests to deepen their understanding about SMK by appropriate methods and strategies and ultimately to enhance learners' development.Modern curriculum for pre-service EFL teacher education should balance SMK courses and other PCK components courses.It should impart SMK as well as train student teachers to process and transform SMK to learners in a comprehensive way.Meanwhile the model of teaching practice is supposed to be improved.Curriculum design should enhance the connection and integration of practical and theoretical courses.Curriculum, curriculum system and planned extracurricular activities need to be closely correlated to contribute to student teachers' PCK development,which ultimately achieves the expected effect of curriculum design.