A Case Study On TPK Comparison Between Novice And Expert English Teachers In The Rural Middle School

At present, a profound curriculum reform of foreign language education has been implemented at elementary and secondary schools in China, thereby the issue of foreign language teachers’professional development has become an urgent research topic. And the development of teachers plays a crucial role in improving the rural education. As an important part of teachers’professional quality, the in-depth study on practical knowledge can help to make breakthroughs for teachers’professional development.In the perspective of practical knowledge, there lie obvious differences between expert teachers and novice teachers in many aspects. How the novice teachers can develop practical knowledge quickly in their teaching career and grow up to be expert teachers has been an urgent concern for every novice teacher as well as educational administrators. Moreover, many researchers have focused on the experienced teachers’ TPK but few of them paid attention to the growth of novice English teachers’TPK as well as their professional development, especially teachers in rural areas. This study attempts to serve as case material for novice English teachers in rural area to reflect upon and to provide practical basis for the present rural teacher training and education.Three research problems are to be addressed in the paper:(1)What are the differences in understanding and presentation of TPK between novice and expert English teachers in rural middle school?(2)What are the factors contributing to the change and development of TPK for rural middle school English teachers?(3)How to improve the novice English teachers’TPK in the rural middle school? Three novice English teachers and three expert English teachers in a rural middle school are chosen as the research subjects. With the depth interview, classroom observation and questionnaire survey as the research tools, the paper adopts the qualitative case study to focus on the rural English teachers’practical knowledge. Through the presentation of teachers’teaching ideas and behaviors as well as their own meaning interpretation, the present study is conducted with the purpose of investigating their respective understandings and presentation of TPK. And by analyzing the factors contributing to the change and development of TPK, this paper attempts to explore strategies to improve TPK development for the rural novice English teachers, so as to provide reflective suggestions for the present rural English teacher education and training.The preliminary findings of this study are described as below. Firstly, there lie major difference in understanding and presentation of TPK between novice and expert English teachers in rural middle school.(1) With respect to the basic understanding of the practical knowledge, compared with the comprehensive and profound cognition of the expert teachers, the novice teachers have a relatively one-sided and superficial understanding for the practical knowledge.(2) In terms of the presentation of the practical knowledge, expert teachers’educational belief is more scientific than that of novice teachers; both the expert and novice teachers are aware of their shortcomings, but the expert teachers can demand themselves from a higher level of professional development; expert teachers have abundant teaching wit in comparison to the insufficient situational knowledge of the novice teachers; expert teachers’level of critical reflection is higher than that of the novice teachers. Secondly, there are internal and external factors affecting the change and development of the rural middle school English teachers’practical knowledge.(1)The internal factors mainly include the consciousness of self-constructing practical knowledge, theoretical knowledge, educational practical experience, teaching reflection, etc.;(2)The external aspects cover the policy of the school, communication with other teachers and the training activities.On the basis of the preliminary findings in the paper, to promote the novice rural middle school English teacher’s practical knowledge development, the following suggestions are put forward:(1)to strengthen teachers’personal practice;(2)to accumulate the practical experience;(3)to lay emphasis on reflection;(4) to build teacher learning community;(5)to reform teacher training.