Research On The Status Quo And Development Strategies Of Rural Junior Middle School EFL Teachers’ TPK

EFL teachers in the rural junior middle school are one of the key factors of implementing English education in the rural junior middle school.Teachers’ professional development is the focus to improve English teaching quality of rural junior middle schools.Doing research on teachers’ practical knowledge,as an important part of teachers’ professional competence,contributes to teachers’ professional development and promotion of English teaching quality in the rural junior middle school.In view of the relevant literature on TPK,the author defined the connotation,characteristics and inscapes of junior middle school EFL teachers’ TPK,as well as factors affecting it.Based on the theory above,the study made an in-depth analysis on status quo about TPK of rural junior middle school EFL teachers in northwestern Hunan province and the factors affecting the generation and development of their TPK by questionnaire survey,interview,non-participant observation and contrastive analysis.The major findings are briefly summarized as follows:(1)On the whole,conclusions can be drawn from the teachers’ questionnaire that rural junior middle school EFL teachers’ TPK is in intermediate and upper level,while from the students’ questionnaire,their teachers’ TPK is in lower intermediate level.The difference in the results of some dimensions of EFL teachers’ TPK is significant.(2)There are great differences in the 7 dimensions of TPK for EFL teachers with different genders,teaching years,professional titles,educational qualifications and frequencies of teaching graduating class in the rural junior middle school and the distinctions among some of them are even more obvious.(3)The characteristics of status quo for rural junior middle school EFL teachers’ TPK show the tendency of utilitarianism in teachers’ educational belief,knowledge related to teachers themselves to be fleshed out,suppression of students’ characteristics knowledge and strategic knowledge,rigescence in teaching wit,lack of deep critical reflection and conservativeness in teaching techniques.(4)Loss of initiative in self-improvement,weakness in the school’s effects and imbalance between system and practice are the factors affecting the generation and development of rural junior middle school EFL teachers’ TPK at present.Meanwhile,in the study 3 EFL teachers with different teaching years were selected from interview subjects and deeply analyzed on utilization of their TPK and factors affecting the generation and improvement of their TPK via data collection methods such as stimulated recall,interview and class observation.Finally,based on the results above,strategies about how to improve TPK of rural junior middle school EFL teachers in Northwestern Hunan Province are put forward in this study.(1)From the aspect of teachers: forming the idea of lifelong learning and inclusive education,strengthening reflection and becoming a propellent of education informatization.(2)From the aspect of the school: constructing the exchange and cooperation mechanism of TPK and making the school management on the track of teaching and teachers’ development.(3)From the aspect of society: unclogging the source: reconstructing the training mode of pre-service teachers,building an objective and practical evaluation system for the professional title,reforming income distribution system: weakening the professional titles and updating in-service teachers’ training mode.