A Comparative Study Of Pre-service And In-service English Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

The impact of development of information technology has been permeated into every corner of society which includes the field of education. In the network information age, educational informationization requires that teachers should change into a new type of teacher who should have information literacy. Therefore, Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) is the knowledge base of teachers’professionalization in the information age. So how to develop teachers’ educational technological ability is an urgent problem to be solved.The framework of TPACK is put forward by Mishra and Koehler (2005) which is based on Shulman’s pedagogical knowledge. Currently, TPACK has become a hot topic at home and abroad in the teacher educational field. With the increasingly wide use of technology information in the classroom teaching, if teachers want to teach effectively in the integrated technology teaching environment, they must own rich TPACK.In this study, questionnaire is used as the main research instrument, and the subjects are 92 in-service English teachers from four senior high schools in urban areas and 108 pre-service English teachers from two normal colleges in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In addition, the interview as the auxiliary research instrument which involves in 3 pre-service English teachers and 3 in-service English teachers. The two research questions addressed in the present study are:1) What is the general picture of pre-service and in-service English teachers’ TPACK? 2) Is there any difference between pre-service English teachers’TPACK and in-service English teacher’s TPACK? If yes, what are the causes?Through this study, the author has the following results:1) Pre-service English teachers’TPACK stays at a medium level and the overall situation of in-service English teacher’s TPACK is at a relatively high level.2) In the study, the author finds that pre-service and in-service English teachers’TPACK level has dramatic difference. Two major factors that generate the difference can be analyzed as follows. Firstly, TPACK has much to do with three core elements covering content knowledge, technology knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. As for the pre-service English teachers, they learn TPACK mainly from content course, technology course and pedagogy course. By comparison, as for the in-service English teachers, they acquire TPACK mainly through combining the English teaching practice with relevant academic theories. Secondly, TPACK is successively performed in procedures of teaching design, teaching reflection, teaching redesign and teaching practice. The whole process is practiced repeatedly, which can help English teachers to improve their TPACK competence.Based on the above findings, some suggestions are put forward for pre-service and in-service English teachers to improve their TPACK level.1) From the perspective of school, some relative professional curriculum and measures should be taken in order to promote the pre-service English teacher’s TPACK level.2) From the perspective of pre-service English teachers, they must grasp the systematic teaching theory and take more practice and reflection.3) From the perspective of the lifelong learning, the in-service English teachers should arrange some time to learn something about the professional knowledge.