Exploring The Construction Of English Teachers’ Practical Knowledge In The Communities Of Practice

With the vigorous development of global education and the acceleration of the curriculum reform of compulsory education in China,improving teachers’ professional development awareness and ability to promote the all-round and harmonious development of students has become the core issue of teachers’ research.Since the 1980 s,the professional proposition of teachers’ practical knowledge has been generally recognized by researchers,which is of great significance to teachers professional development.As a new community of practice for teachers professional development with Chinese characteristics,the expert teacher workshop is currently thriving throughout the country.This paper takes “a junior high school English expert teacher workshop in Chenggong district” in Kunming city as the research subject.Through the case study method,it adopts Professor Chen Xiangming’s(2011)five components of teachers’ practical knowledge and combines all kinds of activities of the expert teacher workshop as the framework.Questionnaire survey,after-class interview and reflection journals are used to collect data and analyze the factors affecting construction of practical knowledge in expert teacher workshop.Two research questions raised are:1.How are the expert teacher workshop training activities affecting the construction of teachers’ practical knowledge?2.What are the characteristics of the teachers’ practical knowledge construction in terms of the five components of teachers’ practical knowledge respectively?This study finds that,the activities carried out by expert teacher workshop,a community of practice guided by expert teachers,have promoted the construction of five components of teachers’ practical knowledge,which are(a)educational belief,(b)knowledge of self,(c)knowledge of students,(d)situational knowledge,(e)knowledge of subject.To be more specific,“reflection and report”,which is a combination of both collective and individual reflection,has the greatest impact on the construction of teachers’ “education belief” and “knowledge of self”.“Observation and evaluation on lessons” have the most obvious effect on the development of “knowledge of students”.Meanwhile,the determining factor of “situational knowledge” comes from “demonstrative teaching” and “collective lesson planning” is the primary influencing factor on “knowledge of subject”.Through participating in various forms of activities in expert teacher workshop,there appeared characteristics of teachers’ “knowledge of self being evolved”,“knowledge of subject being mastered”,” knowledge of students being deepened”,“situational knowledge being updated” and “different education beliefs coexisted”.The five components of teachers’ practical knowledge are constructed simultaneously in a dynamic process rather than separately through the training activities in expert teacher workshop.These development factors of practical knowledge promote teacher professional growth and help them to complete their professional development in the platform provided by expert teacher workshop.This study provides more information for the future research on the development of junior high school English teachers’ practical knowledge,and also provides some references for the better development of expert teacher workshop and professional development activities in other regions,especially for teachers in a small district.