A Study Of Pedagogical Content Knowledge In College EFL Teachers' Development

Teaching is a kind of cognitive process in which teachers and students participate. In this process, teachers study how to use their own knowledge and how to acquire knowledge to make their teaching more efficient. Although teacher knowledge has been a part of professional educators' studies for a long time, not until the 80s has it been systematically researched.Teacher knowledge can be classified in three kinds, namely general knowledge, subject matter knowledge, and knowledge of pedagogy. The researches of teacher knowledge showed that teacher's subject matter knowledge has not directly improved teaching quality. Which kind of knowledge can directly promote the teacher's development? In the mid 80s, Shulman at Stanford University completed a project named "The knowledge growth in a profession project" (1986a). It aimed to find what knowledge builds on both subject matter knowledge and knowledge of pedagogy, how teachers acquire this knowledge, how it develops, and how they use it in their teaching time. Shulman (1986,1987) proposes a form of formal and specific content knowledge that he calls "pedagogical content knowledge" (PCK). And the researchers believe that PCK is what distinguishes experienced teachers from novice teachers. However, researchers were not aware of PCK until the late 20^th century, becoming as Shulman (1986, p. 6) labels it, "a missing paradigm". Therefore, this study is based on PCK for the purpose of researching the development of PCK in the teaching process of college EFL teachers. This thesis is divided into the following parts.Chapter One is the introduction of this thesis. This chapter states the basic theory, purpose, and significance of this thesis. It explains the discovery of PCK in the 1980s by Shulman. In China, PCK is a new branch of teacher knowledge study. Studies on it are rare and mostly focus on expressing the theory of PCK. Few studies come into contact with the English teaching process. Because PCK is a new field of study, this chapter introduces questions that cannot be answered by the limited PCK studies in China. These questions revolve around the development of PCK during teaching time, the importance of changes in teaching to PCK, and the triggers of PCK development. Finally, this chapter states the purpose of this study, to research the process of college EFL teachers' development in PCK.Chapter Two is the review of the previous study. This chapter focuses on the interdisciplinary study of PCK abroad and at home in China. The review includes the achievements as well as the lack of present studies.Chapter Three is the methodology of this research. This study employs the qualitative multiple case study approach. We did semi-structured interviews, observing videotaped lessons, lesson plans, and written reflections. The data we collected includes videotapes of lessons, semi-structured interview notes, and the teachers' written accounts. The teachers' written accounts include lesson plans and post-lesson self-evaluations. The techniques we utilized were systematically "watching", "asking", and "reviewing". Over a certain period of observing the teaching time, we achieved our purpose of understanding the interactive and holistic process of the teachers' PCK development.Chapter Four is the theory of PCK, This chapter focuses on the definitions, classifications and developing models of PCK. This thesis is based on Shulman's classification of teacher knowledge and the definition of PCK. Also, it adopts other researchers' teacher knowledge theory. It aspires to give advice to the teacher knowledge system.Chapter Five is the case study of PCK in college EFL teachers' development. It is the key of the thesis. This case study employs the qualitative multiple case study approach to examine the process of college EFL teachers' development in PCK. This thesis proves the Shulman's theory about PCK, and proves the importance of PCK in the teaching process. Chapter Six is the conclusion. This chapter presents a brief summary of this study. It first attempts to propose a Three-Stage Model for perfecting the studies of PCK development and gives a new model for the college EFL teacher service. At last, it points out the limitations and the recommendations for further study. It is an open and systematic project to study the development of PCK for the college EFL teachers. It is not enough to study it only from one case study. It needs more technology, more time, and more informants. It is hoped that this thesis might serve as a foundation for further studies within this noteworthy field of EFL teacher development.In a word, Shulman's classification of teacher knowledge and his definition of PCK is the basis of this study. It offers some potential contributions to our knowledge of the professional development of college EFL teacher. This kind of knowledge is related to teacher thinking, teacher knowledge, and teacher learning. By drawing from the data of Shulman's empirical study, this research project identifies several stages and a trigger for developing PCK. Meanwhile, the analysis of this study enhances our understanding of English teacher concerns by adding to the three indicated in the current literature: self-concerns, teaching concerns and student concerns. The present research also shows several approaches of in-service teachers' professional learning, which is closely related to college EFL teachers' PCK development apart from the formal teacher education programmes. The main purpose of this study is to examine the process of college EFL teachers' development in PCK. It attempts to identify the trigger for such development; in so doing, produces some hypothesized models of PCK development. Although these models are tentative, they will serve as a potential framework for evaluating college EFL teacher development in some other contexts as well.The field of PCK research is very large, making data collection difficult. Therefore, this study looks only at a case study. As a case study researches a smaller group, the data might be incomplete. Thus, it hopes that the scholars can give suggestions to help better and further this thesis.