A Comparative Study Of Novice And Expert English Teachers' PCK In Junior High School

This thesis makes a comparative analysis of novice and expert English teachers' PCK(Pedagogical Content Knowledge) in junior high school. PCK, as the core of teacher knowledge base, represents teachers' personal teaching experience. It represents the combination of specific subject knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, and it also includes teachers' distinctive understanding of the subject. The studies of PCK both at home and abroad focus on its definition, constitution and development. Among these studies, the number of comparative studies between novice and expert English teachers' PCK is less, meanwhile the English subject is much less focused, compared with science and mathematics. Based on the comparative analysis of junior high school novice and expert English teachers' PCK, this thesis attempts to make junior high school teachers reflect on their own PCK situation, promote novice teachers to adapt to the teaching work and then become more professional.Based on Grossman's PCK theory, this thesis aims to explore the following three questions: first, what's the difference between junior high school novice and expert English teachers' PCK? Which aspects does it embody? Why does the difference exist? Second, what do students think of their English teachers' PCK according to their daily teaching? Third, what suggestions can be offered to promote junior high school teachers' PCK based on the comparative analysis? In order to solve the three questions, the researcher selected two expert teachers and two novice teachers from her internship school as the subjects, and conducted the comparative study by observing their teaching and interviewing those four teachers. In addition, 260 junior school students of these four teachers were surveyed to collect their opinions about their own teachers' PCK. The results of the survey turned out that novice and expert teachers' PCK differed significantly in the following three parts: knowledge of teaching aims, knowledge of students' understanding and knowledge of teaching strategy. The survey results were consistent with those obtained from the class observation and interview of the four teachers.By the class observation, the interview and questionnaire survey, the researcher has summarized the following differences between novice and expert English teachers: first, in terms of the knowledge of teaching aims, the novice teachers pay attention to not only language knowledge and skills but also cultural and emotional aspects, while expert teachers pay more attention to language knowledge and skills; second, in the aspect of curriculum knowledge, expert teachers are better at connecting the knowledge students have learned, while novice teachers are better at arranging the teaching content; third, in terms of the knowledge of students' understanding, expert teachers have better understanding of junior students' physical and mental characteristics and cognitive level because of their rich teaching experience, whereas novice teachers lack teaching experience, so their understanding of students' learning actuality is not complete; fourth, with respect to teaching strategy, expert teachers pay less attention to the leading-in, presentation, production, interaction parts of the class, they tend to teach the textbook rigidly, while novice teachers use kinds of teaching modes to draw students' attention and promote teaching efficiency. Based on these differences, the researcher puts forward some suggestions to promote novice and expert English teachers' PCK.As to the PCK development of novice teachers, the researcher suggests: first, novice teachers should pay attention to the frontiers research in foreign language teaching and learn the advanced educational ideas; second, they need to restudy the English curriculum knowledge to enrich their content knowledge structure; third, pay attention to self-reflection. As to expert teachers, their ways to promote PCK are listed as follows: first, try to learn educational theories and put the beliefs of the new curriculum into practice; second, cumulate and enrich the intercultural knowledge; third, be ready to try new teaching methods and teaching means.Because of the limit of the researcher's ability, this thesis has some shortcomings: the research time is not so sufficient; research subjects are so small, consisting of only four teachers in one school. Considering the findings and shortcomings, therefore, the following researchers can try to enlarge the research subjects, or make comparative studies of female and male English teachers' PCK, in order to enrich the relevant studies of PCK.