A Comparative Study Of Novice And Experienced English Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge In Senior High School

Pedagogical Content Knowledge(PCK)is the essential knowledge for effective teaching and the core embodiment of teacher' professional knowledge.PCK is also an important factor to distinguish novice teachers from experienced teachers.Therefore,this study aims to compare and analyze the pedagogical content knowledge between high school English novice teachers and experienced teachers,which can effectively guide the professional development of novice teachers.In this study,the researcher mainly studied two questions: 1.What are the similarities and differences between novice and experienced English Teachers' PCK?2.What causes the differences between novice and experienced English Teachers' PCK? During the three months of the research,three instruments,namely,interview,classroom observation and text analysis(lesson plan analysis)were used to collect data.By analyzing the data through coding and categorizing,the study comes to the following major findings:1.The similarities of the two teachers' PCK are mainly reflected in aspects of knowledge of purposes for teaching English and knowledge of instructional strategies.Both teachers attach great importance to the improvements of students' reading skills and emotion,but they do not pay enough attention to the accumulation of students' cultural knowledge.In the aspect of knowledge of instructional strategies,extensive reading and intensive reading are adopted.2.The differences of PCK between the two teachers are reflected in the fouraspects of knowledge of purposes for teaching English,knowledge of curriculum,knowledge of students and knowledge of instructional strategies.In terms of knowledge of purposes for teaching English,the novice teacher pays more attention to the development of students' oral English,while the experienced teacher pays more attention to the accumulation of students' language and grammar knowledge.In terms of curriculum knowledge,the experienced teacher's method is more effective in organization of teaching content and horizontal connection of knowledge than the novice teacher.In terms of knowledge of students,the novice teacher is not as accurate as the experienced teacher in judging students' potential preconceptions and possible errors on specific subjects.In terms of knowledge of instructional strategies,in terms of interactive strategies with students,the novice teacher often guides students to the “destination” step by step.3.In terms of the causes of the differences in PCK,the study finds that the main causes consists of the teaching experience,the influence of their high school English teachers and the influence of the evaluation content of college entrance examination.The PCK of the novice teacher is mainly caused by the lack of teaching experience,while the experienced teacher is more influenced by the evaluation content of college entrance examination than novice teachers.In view of the differences above,it is found that either the novice or the experienced teacher has some imperfections in pedagogical content knowledge,which is needed to be improved.