Application And Reflection Of English Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge(PCK) In Lesson Plans In Two County-level High Schools

Pedagogical content knowledge(PCK) is the core of teachers’ professional knowledge and the most effective knowledge that facilitates teaching. Since Shulman has put forward the conception of PCK, PCK has become a popular research topic. Bai Yimin is the first person that introduced PCK into China. From then on, much research has been done on PCK. However, studying on specific teachers’ PCK, especially those teaching in county-level high schools, is not sufficient. Through documentary analysis, textual analysis, classroom observation and interview,this study aims to explore how English teachers’ PCK is reflected in their lesson plans and whether PCK in lesson plans is transformed into PCK in subsequent classroom teaching. The research subjects are 32 English teachers from two county-level high schools. Both qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis are applied in this study. PCK includes six components in the thesis: curricula knowledge, English content knowledge, knowledge of learners, contextual knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and knowledge of evaluation.The results indicate: firstly, six components of PCK are reflected in the lesson plan more or less. Among the six components of PCK, “curricula knowledge”, “English content knowledge”, “contextual knowledge” and “pedagogical knowledge” are more reflected, while “knowledge of learners” and “knowledge of evaluation” are relatively less reflected. At the same time, there still exist a lot of problems: a) teaching lays more emphasis on “English content knowledge” and on college entrance examination; b) English teachers’ PCK in county-level high school is insufficient and incomplete; c) teaching model is still teacher-centered and difficult to change. Secondly, not all the components of English teachers’ PCK are transformed into the PCK in subsequent classroom teaching. Only “English content knowledge” and “contextual knowledge” are transformed. The rest four aren’t transformed. However, the transforming frequency of “curricula knowledge” and “pedagogical knowledge” are lower but close to transforming cut-point(70%), and knowledge of learners and knowledge of evaluation are the lowest.The study also explores the causes of such PCK in lesson plan and classroom teaching. The causes are the utilitarian tendency of examination-oriented education, educational experiences of English teachers, lack of reflective ability, lack of cooperation and communication. Finally, some suggestions are offered for English teachers’ professional development in two county-level high schools. 1) Enhancing the statical PCK; 2) Combining external teachers’ training with internal teaching practice; 3) Optimizing the cooperation of teachers...