Comparative Study Of The PCK Between Novice And Expert Teachers

At present,relevant studies on PCK both at home and abroad mainly focus on the connotation,component and development of PCK.However,among these studies,comparisons of PCK between novice and expert English teachers are relatively few.What is more,most comparative studies focus on Physics,Chemistry and other science subjects,while comparative study on English is lacking.Therefore,this essay,taking English teachers in Changjun MeiXihu Middle School as examples,gives comparative analysis on the novice and expert English teacher,and hopes to encourage English teachers in middle schools to reflect and improve themselves,so as to further promote their PCK.Meanwhile,novice teachers can better adapt to their teaching jobs and become more professional.This essay,supported by PCK theory proposed by Grossman,studies on the following questions:(1)what is the difference of PCK between novice and expert English teachers in middle schools?What are the causes for the differences?(2)What do the students think of the teachers' teaching methods and effections?To solve the problems above,the author chose two novice English teachers and two expert English teachers from Changjun Mei Xihu Middle School.By observing the class teaching performance and giving after-class interview,the author conducted a comparative analysis on the PCK of the two kinds of teachers respectively.Two hundred and twenty four students of the four teachers were invited to do a questionnaire so as to have a better idea on their opinions to the PCK of their English teachers.The results drawn by the survey are consistent with those gained from the class observation and after-class interview of these teachers,as there is a huge difference in the knowledge of teaching purposes,students' understanding of knowledge and knowledge of teaching strategies between novice and expert English teachers.With the reference to the results of class observation,after-class interview and questionnaire,a conclusion can be drawn from the comparative study that the differences of PCK between novice and expert English teachers in middle schools are mainly presented in the following aspects:(1)in terms of the knowledge of English teaching purpose,the novice teachers not only focus on the basic language knowledge,but also the cultivation and English language culture,while expert teachers prefer to focus on the language knowledge and skills;(2)as for the teaching methods,expert teachers prefer to build knowledge framework for students,while novice teachers focus more on the arrangement of teaching content;(3)in the aspect of knowledge understanding of students,with rich teaching experience and on the basis of the mental condition and cognition level of students in middle schools,expert teachers better master the knowledge understanding of their students,while novice teachers have less understanding of their students' learning condition due to the lack of teaching experience;(4)in terms of teaching strategies,novice teachers pay more attention to the adoption of teaching techniques and the promotion of teaching efficiency,while expert teachers mainly focus on the text book itself rather than the various teaching techniques.Based on the differences stated above,the author proposed the following suggestions for the promotion of PCK of novice and expert English teachers.Suggestions for the promotion of novice teachers' PCK are as follows:(1)pay more attention to the English teaching frontier,and learn from the outstanding teaching ideas;(2)consolidate English curriculum knowledge and improve the knowledge structure;(3)enhance the sense of self-reflection.Suggestions for the promotion of expert teachers' PCK are as follows:(1)consolidate the knowledge of teaching theories;(2)enrich the knowledge in the fields of cross-culture communication;(3)upgrade teaching methods and teaching ways.