The Development Of Pedagogical Content Knowledge In EFL Student Teachers In Teaching Practice

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), which has been regarded as the knowledge of a teacher who integrates various knowledge bases and makes teaching accessible to students, has been widely accepted and confirmed as a constituent of teaching expertise in expert teachers in recent years. However, after professional learning in school, student teachers were still unable to apply PCK in their teaching appropriately.As the primary stage, teaching practice functions as a bridge between their professional learning on teaching and future actual teaching performance. This thesis investigates PCK development in two student teachers during their teaching practice.The research is content-specific (teaching of EFL), context-specific (Shanghai), and subject-specific (postgraduates in their teaching practice). It uses an analytical framework adapted from Zhu Xiaoyan (2004), which focuses on six components of PCK: conceptions of teaching purposes, knowledge of curriculum, subject matter knowledge, knowledge of students, knowledge of pedagogy and knowledge of self.This qualitative research employs case studies. The two student teachers were deliberately selected. Both of them were postgraduates in their teaching practice. The data collected from them between September2012to December2012included11lesson plans,9videotaped lessons,6written reflections and8semi-structured interviews.The results indicate that the two student teachers both experienced a transition from a teacher-oriented to a learner-oriented perspective, from a technique-based to a student-based understanding of teaching. In addition, the various elements of PCK developed unevenly while the knowledge of students appeared to play the function of triggering other elements of PCK.This study also argues that there is a close relationship between student teachers’ developing PCK and the context within which they conduct teaching practice. Among the various factors in the context, this study finds that the adviser’s instruction and community of practice contribute a lot to the development of PCK. Meanwhile, it seems that reflective thinking and community of practice are supplementary to each other.The results of this research contribute to guiding student teacher to realize the necessary transitions before their teaching practice and it will help them see the potential problems which would happen during the practice. This study also provides implications for EFL student teachers’ professional learning.