A Study On The Influence Of Teaching Practicum On MED Candidates' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge(TPACK),emerging as an important integration of teachers' knowledge structure,was firstly put forward by Mishra and Koehler based on Shulman's Pedagogical Content Knowledge(PCK).This integrated conception is essentially necessary in teachers' professional knowledge,for it tends to influence preservice teachers' as well as in-service teachers' professional development as a result of various factors' influences.Therefore,TPACK needs to be studied in order to explore its measurements,development strategies,influencing factors,and discipline teaching.Considerable amounts of researches that focused on the survey and practice of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge from various perspectives,such as education technology,teacher education(pre-service teacher and in-service teacher),and discipline teaching in middle schools have been conducted.Nevertheless,on the whole,the certain research focused on preservice teachers' TPACK development is relatively scarce and is mainly gathered in the aspects of the disciplines like information technology,mathematics,and science,while the researches in the field of English preservice teachers' TPACK development are relatively limited.At the same time,as a newly emerging degree education,MED was set up in the recent years,which results in the limited number of researches focused on MED candidates' TPACK development.Furthermore,as one of the most important integration of teacher'' education,teaching practicum plays an irreplaceable role in preservice teachers' professional knowledge and teaching abilities development.In view of this,based on the previous researches on TPACK,the present study sets out to explore teaching practicum's influence on MED candidates' TPACK development,and the possible reasons that could cause such influence,with the aim of further confirming the significance of TPACK in teachers'professional development and contributing valuable information to the research on English major preservice teachers' TPACK development,as well as the improvement of MED education program.The study focuses on two major research questions:(1)Are there any differences between MED candidates' TPACK before the teaching practicum and after the teaching practicum?(2)If there are some differences between MED candidates' TPACK before the teaching practicum and after the teaching practicum,what are the possible reasons?Participants in this study were 49 MED candidates studying in the School of Foreign Languages at Central China Normal University which entered CCNU in 2016.Three research instruments including the questionnaire,the intensive interview,and classroom observation were adopted:All the 49 MED candidates were firstly conducted questionnaires twice,that is,before and after the teaching practicum,and then 6 of them participated in the intensive interview accompanied with the assistance of the videos collected from the micro-teaching and teaching practicum video tasks.It is found that compared with MED candidates' TPACK level before teaching practicum,there indeed exists rising changes in the data collected after teaching practicum,which from another aspect proves that teaching practicum do make positive influences on MED candidates' TPACK development.Among these changes,MED candidates' changes in TK and PK dimensions turn to be greatly significant.Through the teaching practicum,MED candidates apply and gain teaching method,evaluation method,and classroom management strategies,which make great contribution to their improvement in PK dimension.During the teaching practicum,MED candidates gain confidence in applying technological knowledge and gain technological knowledge in different ways.At the same time,after the teaching practicum,MED candidates concern more about students' need than before,and get deeper and more integrated understanding about TPACK.These can be ascribed to the influence of factors like MED candidates'practical teaching experience and self-reflection.Results also reveal practicum schools'environment as one of the possible reasons,in which the practicum supervisors,practicum teams,and middle school students jointly make positive influences on MED candidates' TPACK development.Furthermore,teachers' education program at CCNU also provides useful support for MED candidates' TPACK development.Besides,because of the limited attention and ability to understand,assimilate,and apply new knowledge,MED candidates' TPACK changes in each dimension are unbalanced.To facilitate MED candidates' further TPACK development,some practical suggestions are also offered in the end of the study:MED candidates should actively take part in the teaching practice,and reinforce self-reflection in the whole process of self-development,and meanwhile set up the awareness of positive learning.MED program should provide more and more practical teaching practice opportunities,and set up educational technology courses fitting to middle school teaching situations,and offer continuous guidance to MED candidates during the process of teaching practicum.As for the practicum schools,they need to pay close attention to MED candidates' development and should lay more confidence on MED candidates and provide more chances to participant in teaching and researching activities.