| Teaching is a profession, more than an occupation. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) was proposed by Shulman (1986) as the most essential element that distinguishes a teacher from an expert in a certain field. Later Grossman (1990) proposed a four-dimension model of PCK which provides a theoretical framework for subsequent studies of PCK. As a type of practical knowledge in nature, PCK is highly context-specific and thus needs to be studied within a specific subject domain or even under a specific topic. The present research is based on the above mentioned framework.Expert teachers distinguish themselves from others with their unique teaching wisdom. The present study is a case study of a special-class high school English teacher with a focus on teaching English reading. Based on a two-month in-depth research of this expert teacher’s teaching English reading to high school students, the researcher tries to explore his PCK of English reading. The research revolves around two questions:1). What is the expert teacher’s PCK in the domain of teaching English reading to high school students? 2). In what forms is this PCK represented in the expert teacher’s mind and put into his practical use? The researcher applied a hybrid of qualitative methods to collect data from classroom observation, interviews, and relevant teaching files. On the basis of Grossman’s theoretical framework of the content of PCK, the researcher had a qualitative analysis of the data by reading and comparing data, summarizing the gist, and finding evidences in different parts to support each other. The research finds out that this expert teacher boasts a rich and personalized PCK in the domain of teaching English reading to high school students. The content and representation of his PCK is as follows:As regards the content, firstly, his knowledge of teaching objectives of English reading emphasizes high levels of reading comprehension abilities, the cultivation of humanistic feelings and cultural awareness through text, the appreciation of the beauty of language, and the exclusive instruction on proper nouns; secondly, the knowledge of students’ learning of English reading contains his understanding of their English reading competence and advantages, his observation of their problems or difficulties in reading, and the evaluation of the potentials of their reading abilities; thirdly, the knowledge of curricular materials of English reading exists in his dissatisfaction with the exclusive use of textbooks, the principles for selecting extra-curricular materials for high school students, and his critical thinking of popular digital materials (PPT and videos); finally, his knowledge of pedagogical strategies of English reading is materialized in the use of three types of output activities for higher levels of reading, the strategies to make students feel challenged in order to grasp the text, the strategies to prevent students from pre-viewing so as to help them read efficiently, and his strategies of using instructional language. Knowledge of the four dimensions influences each other and integratedly exists. The former two dimensions have an even greater influence over the latter two.As regards the representation and usage of the PCK, all the four dimensions are represented in the expert teacher’s action, but not in a tacit way:they are abstracted into articulate principles or personalized rules of thumb, and thus they are able to better guide the action of both the expert himself and that of others. |
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