| Since Shulman proposed the concept of Pedagogical Content Knowledge(PCK)in 1986,more and more scholars have developed the researches of PCK.PCK is an integration of pedagogy knowledge and content knowledge,which focuses on how teachers transfer what they know to what they teach.PCK as the core part of teacher knowledge influences teachers’ professional development and the progress of educational reform.Among previous studies at home and abroad,there are few studies about the comparison of English novice teachers and expert teachers in senior high school on PCK.Therefore,this study aims to find out the differences between novice teachers and expert teachers and the ways that promote the development of English teachers’ PCK.The research questions are as following:(1)What are the differences of PCK between novice teacher and expert teacher in terms of four aspects: conception of purposes for teaching subject matter,curricular knowledge,knowledge of students’ understanding and knowledge of instructional strategies?(2)What are the expert teacher’s ways to develop PCK?Based on Grossman(1990)’s theory about PCK,two teachers who meet the criterion of novice teachers and expert teachers in Hengxian Middle School were chosen as the research subjects.The author compared the differences between them on PCK through questionnaire,interview,classroom observation and text analysis.Data of the research was collected by interviewing the two teachers respectively,recording 12 English classes respectively(24 in total),collecting 12 teaching plans respectively(24 in total)and surveying 85 students about their opinions of their teachers’ PCK.The result indicates that differences exist between novice teacher and expert teacher on PCK in terms of the conception of purposes for teaching subject matter,curricular knowledge,knowledge of students’ understanding and knowledge of instructional strategies.(1)As for conception of purposes for teaching subject matter,the expert teacher pays more attention to students’ individual development and put more emphasis on cultivating students’ thinking and learning capacities,and widening their horizon while the novice teacher more focus on the development of students’ language skills.(2)In terms of curricular knowledge,the expert teacher takes more flexible and various ways to deal with teaching materials and have more knowledge about what students have learned before,the relations and distinctions between previous knowledge and new knowledge,and how to connect previous knowledge to new knowledge.(3)Concerning the knowledge of students’ understanding,the expert teacher has deeper recognition for students,including their learning characteristics,cognitive development,and the knowledge they have learnt before.(4)In terms of the knowledge of instructional strategies,the repertoire used by the expert teacher appears to be more various and flexible and has higher eliciting skills and scaffolding skills when using instructional strategies.As for the second question “What are the expert teacher’s ways to develop PCK?”,the result of interview indicates that the development of English teachers’ PCK are promoted by self-motivated learning,reflection,implications from other teachers,observing students in daily life,reading specialized books,analyzing textbooks and test paper.Based on these results,suggestions are provided for the novice teacher as following:(1)Read more books to deepen the understanding for the essence of English and education.(2)Analyze textbooks.(3)Know more about students’ cognition development,learning characteristics and the knowledge students have learnt before,and take the situation of students into consideration when having class.(4)Improve skills for using instructional strategies. |
PDF Full Text Request