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Teaching Research Activites And Teachers' KCS: A Case Study In Shanghai Jing-An Education College Affiliated School

Posted on:2012-12-19Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:D D WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2167330335964733Subject:Subject teaching
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Teaching research system is a system that require teachers to regularly study and improve their teaching together, which was started in China in 1950s. After half a century of development and change, the system in some schools has become a mere formality of the furnishings, lost its original functions. However, the system is valued as one of necessary means of communication by teachers in some schools, as the teachers of the schools are deeply benefited from the collaborations and encouragements advocated by the system. The school studied in this paper, Shanghai Jing-An Education College Affiliated School is such a kind of school who is famous for its teaching research activities and their students' excellent achievements. Students' achievements are regularly contributed to their teachers' qualifications. In the past 10 years, teachers' knowledge has become a hot research topic in many countries, includes China. Knowledge of content and students, abbreviated as KCS, is a part of teachers' professional knowledge. It can help teachers to consciously use the knowledge of students' preconceptions, experiences and cognitive development theory in their teaching of specific subject content. Comparatively, the numbers of the studies on teachers' KCS are very little in the research field of teachers' knowledge.This author collected data of teachers teaching research activities and many teaching records of the lessons given by her mentor in the school. Using the data, the study answered three research questions. First, how teaching research activities of the school related to teachers' KCS. Second, how teacher L used her KCS in her mathematics teaching and what is her opinion of the origin of her KCS. Third, how teachers from another school think that teaching research activities as an approach of promoting their KCS.This study found that the main contents of teaching research activities in that school are as follow:(1) regular lesson prepare discussion among the teachers who teach in the same grade. Key points and difficult points for the teaching of a topic, teaching process design, selection of appropriate examples and exercises basing on students' common mistakes and errors, and corresponding teaching strategies for overcome them are discussed; (2) teaching research activities organized at school level which have participants from outside, for example, discussing the possibility of using the teaching model that is being practiced in that school in other schools, teaching the same topic by different teachers, experts' lectures, etc.; (3) involving school based research projects, for example, investigating and interchanging knowledge of students' preconceptions of the teaching contents. All of the teaching research contents mentioned above are closely related to promoting KCS of the teachers. Teacher L is a master teacher with plenty of teaching experiences. She improved her KCS by involving teaching research activities, self reading and reflections. Ten school teachers from a high school in Zhejiang province were given a questionnaire. It was found that they value the importance of KCS. However, teaching research activities were not regarded as an key approach for developing KCS of teachers. A possible explanation for this is they seldom organize teaching research activities in the school.Finally, based on the findings, this author gave some suggestions to teachers and teacher educators on how to develop teachers' KCS.
Keywords/Search Tags:KCS, knowledge of content and students, teaching research activities, teacher professional development
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