The Study On Gender Difference In Senior High School English Teachers’ Implicit Knowledge

Polanyi’s research on implicit knowledge has drawn pedagogical theorists’ and practioners’great attention for years and has been applied into pedagogical practices with great effort.Teachers’ implicit knowledge, known as teachers’ personal knowledge, weights more thanteachers’ explicit knowledge when it comes to the influence exerted on pedagogy. Teachers aresupposed to be well aware of the potential impact from their own implicit knowledge system onteaching practices. Thus, an internal consensus will be made by teachers between their implicitand explicit knowledge systems. If teachers fail to accomplish what is mentioned, their teachingbehaviors will be too empirical and irrational due to the separation and contradiction betweenimplicit and explicit knowledge, which will lead teaching practices dwell on outmodedconventions and customs. Teachers, in the long run, will be hindered in terms of individualprofessional development.There are significant differences between males and females in psychology and cognition,resulting in distinct superiorities in the six categories of teachers’ implicit knowledge. In China,the number of male and female English teachers is unbalanced as a result of female Englishteachers largely outnumbering male English teachers, which is worth noticing in this field.However, barely any research has been done from a gender difference point of view concerningteachers’ implicit knowledge. The thesis is in the purpose of discovering the differences betweenmale and female English teachers in senior high schools in terms of teachers’ implicit knowledge,thus in the hope of offering a new point of view or point-cut to the research on teachers’knowledge system and professional development. Accordingly, suggestions will be providedrespectively to male and female English teachers in an effort to improve the quality of teaching.Based on Bem’s gender schema theory and Bem’s androgyny theoretical model, the thesisis conducted in the view of gender difference on English teachers’ implicit knowledge. Theresearch aims at the differences between male and female English teachers’ implicit knowledgein six categories: educational belief, self-knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, situationalknowledge, strategic knowledge and reflective knowledge in the hope of improving andoptimizing teacher’s overall implicit knowledge in China. The analysis on the differences between male and female teachers’ implicit knowledge isconducted based on the research in this regard and therefore, the following three researchquestions are to be solved:1）What is the current situation of male and female senior high school English teachers’implicit knowledge?2）What is the differences between male and female senior high school teachers’ implicitknowledge?3）What causes the differences?As an empirical study, the thesis is done by means of questionnaires and interviews conductedby25male English teachers and25female English teachers in5senior high schools. Detailedanalysis on the six categories of teachers’ implicit knowledge is provided. The thesis indicatesdifferences between male and female English teachers in terms of teachers’ implicit knowledge:male English teachers outperform female English teachers in the aspect of educational belief,self-knowledge and situational knowledge; female English teachers’ advantages oninterpersonal knowledge are obviously seen in the analysis. Barely any distinction on the othertwo categories of teachers’ implicit knowledge is shown in the study. Accordingly, suggestionswill be provided respectively to male and female English teachers in senior high schools in aneffort to optimize their implicit knowledge system. Besides, suggestions from a teachers’professional development point of view will be presented in the ultimate purpose of theenhancement of English teaching quality in senior high schools in China.