The Development Of Novice English Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge Through Reflective Teaching A Case Study Of Two Novices In Bashu Middle School

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), proposed by Shulman (1986), is one of essential components of teachers'knowledge basis. In the past two decades, PCK has emerged as a major exploration of educational researchers. Some researchers abroad have abandoned themselves in the conceptualization of PCK; some have focused on the components of PCK, while only just a few have paid attention to empirical research of it's development. Comparatively, a few researches have been done about PCK in China, and most researchers analyze PCK from the static perspective to illustrate its nature and analyze its features and values. Moreover, the studies on PCK abroad and at home seldom focus on the PCK of novice teachers. However, the education of novices is rather important, because the experienced and expert teachers are all transformed from the novices. To better prepare English teachers, it is important for those involved with teacher education to understand the realities and challenges of today's novices and find efficient ways for their professional development. Since PCK is an important component of teachers'knowledge base, and also a key factor influencing teachers'classroom behavior as well as their professional development, how to develop novice teachers'PCK is essential to teacher development.Besides PCK, reflective teaching is an essential way to promote teacher development. In recent years, as the international research on reflective teaching goes further, educators in China have also probed into this field. Some scholars brought in the ideas of the foreign researchers and discussed the definitions, characteristics, and models of reflective teaching. And most of the studies are about reflective teaching promoting the pre-service and experienced teacher development, and fewer upon the novices.PCK is a component of teachers'knowledge basis and the reflective teaching is an essential way to promote teacher development. Most studies conducted to understand reflective teaching and teachers'PCK separately, but seldom on their mutual relations, to say nothing of their influences upon novice teachers. Hence, based on the case study of two novice English teachers in Bashu Middle School, this thesis aims to find out what extent of PCK the novices have already internalized and what extent of PCK can be developed through reflective teaching according to the data drawn from the lesson plans, classroom observations, and interviews.Andrew's PCK classification and Eby's reflective model are adopted in the research. Eby's reflective model including reflective plan, reflective teaching, and reflective evaluation is the basis of teachers' reflection as well as the research procedure. During reflective plan, teachers do their lesson planning, and the author observes the classes in the process of reflective teaching. Interviews with teachers make novices evaluate their lessons they have already gave and plan their next one. The first interview with students examines which components of PCK have already been internalized by the novices before the study from the students'perspective such as knowledge of learners, and the second one examines novices' PCK development after the study. The data come from lesson plans, author's classroom observations, and interviews with novices and their students.The results show that during the process of pre-service teacher training, the novice teachers have already got some PCK, such as knowledge of curriculum and knowledge of pedagogy. However, PCK internalized in the pre-service training is not enough for novices'professional development and reflective teaching can promote teachers'PCK acquirement in the furtherance of their professional development. It is hoped that this thesis might serve as a foundation for the studies within the field of teacher development, especially novice English teachers'PCK development.