A Case Study Of College English Teachers’ Practical Knowledge Based On Classroom Narratives

With the continuous improvement of higher education,more and more attention has been paid to the professional development of teachers.As essential part of teachers’ professional development,teacher knowledge has increasingly become a hot topic.Since the research of Elbaz,scholars have begun to study teachers and their teaching from the perspective of teaching practice,and teachers’ practical knowledge has been increasingly concerned.Based on the narrative inquiry and constructivism,combining with factors that affect teachers’ practical knowledge proposed by Chen Xiangming,Xu Jinfen and Ju Yucui,this study discusses the two research questions: 1.What is the practical knowledge that underlies college English teachers’ classroom narratives? 2.What factors shape college teachers’ practical knowledge? Four college English teachers were invited to participate in the study.Classroom observations were used to collect four teachers’ narratives,through which the teachers’ practical knowledge was identified and explored.Besides,interview was adopted to further explore the internal and external factors that affect the teachers’ practical knowledge.The main findings of the study are as follows.Firstly,the practical knowledge of the four college English teachers mainly includes four aspects: knowledge of subject,knowledge of students,knowledge of self and knowledge of milieu.Teachers’ practical knowledge is embodied by the classroom narratives(hypothetical narrative,personal narrative,shared narrative,cultural narrative and narrative about others)usedby teachers in interpreting texts.Second,teachers’ practical knowledge is based on their personal life experience,academic attainments and teaching experience.It is generated and developed through constant reflection in the educational context communication with students and teaching environment as external media.This paper puts forward some suggestions on the future researches: doing more empirical research,combining the specific subject and expanding the survey sample.