A Comparative Case Study On Pedagogical Content Knowledge In English Classroom Between Novice And Experienced Teachers In Junior High School

In 1980 s,Shulman proposed that the seven categories of teachers' knowledge.Among these seven categories,as the core of teacher knowledge,pedagogical content knowledge(PCK)plays an important role in influencing the quality of teachers.However,in China,the researches on English pedagogical content knowledge are inadequate in quality and amount.Therefore,this study focuses on English pedagogical content knowledge of novice and experienced teachers,and makes a comparative study on their pedagogical content knowledge in junior high school English teaching.Based on Shulman's and Grossman's researches on pedagogical content knowledge,four teachers from a junior high school in Yantai City,Shandong Province,were selected as research subjects.This study proposed to investigate the differences of the pedagogical content knowledge in English teaching between novice teachers and experienced teachers.The questions to be studied in this thesis are:(1)What are the differences in the knowledge of teaching purposes in English teaching between novice teachers and experienced teachers?(2)What are the differences in curricular knowledge in English teaching between novice teachers and experienced teachers?(3)What are the differences in knowledge of students' understanding in English teaching between novice teachers and experienced teachers?(4)What are the differences in knowledge of instructional strategies in English teaching between novice teachers and experienced teachers?In the light of the data analysis of students' questionnaires,classroom observation and teachers' interviews,the major findings of the study are as follows:In general,experienced teachers have a better performance in pedagogical content knowledge.First,as for knowledge of teaching purposes,novice teachers focus on emotional teaching purposes,while experienced teachers focus on cultural teaching purposes.In addition,experienced teachers are more confident in designing teaching purposes than novice teachers.Second,as for curricular knowledge,with many yearsteaching experiences,experienced teachers have more advantages.Experienced teachers can increase or delete some teaching material according to the actual situation,while novice teachers cannot organize the teaching material flexibly.Experienced teachers can analyze and interpret text in many effective ways by themselves,while novice teachers rely too much on others' ideas.Third,as for knowledge of students' understanding,comparing with novice teachers,experienced teachers can analyze students more specifically and design the proper teaching plans for the target students.However,neither novice teachers nor experienced teachers can teach according to students' learning motivation.Fourthly,as for knowledge of instructional strategies,neither novice teachers nor experienced teachers have enough effective group work in class.Besides,comparing with experienced teachers,novice teachers cannot help students have a deep understanding of the text by some effective instructional strategies.In addition,none of these teachers can teach in all English.At last,to enhance pedagogical content knowledge of junior high school English teachers,based on these above findings,this study puts forward some suggestions for both teachers and teacher educational department.