An Investigation On The Correlation Between Teacher Education Strategies And Pre-service English Teachers’ TPACK-practical Competence

For pre-service English teachers,the competence of Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge in practice(TPACK-practical)has great influence upon their future career.And teacher education programs play a crucial role in shaping this competence initially.However,domestic researches have yet to standardize targeted strategies that can be employed systematically by most teacher education programs to develop pre-service English teachers’ TPACK-practical competence.In this study,the synthesis of qualitative evidence(SQD)model will be introduced.The strategies in the SQD-model are as follows:(1)using teacher educators as role models,(2)reflecting on the role of technology in education,(3)learning how to use technology by design,(4)collaboration with peers,(5)scaffolding authentic technology experiences,(6)providing continuous feedback.The purpose of the study is to investigate the correlation between SQD strategies and pre-service English teachers’ TPACK-practical competence.The participants enrolled in this study are 50 pre-service English teachers from M.Ed.(Master of Education)program in a normal university in Wuhan.They are required to complete SQD and TPACK-practical scales at the same time.Then,six subjects among them are selected purposely to participate in semi-structured interviews.The current study first examines the status quo of pre-service English teachers’TPACK-practical competence,then to reveal to what degree M.Ed.program has employed six strategies of SQD-model.Finally,the correlation of teacher education strategies and pre-service English teachers’TPACK-practical competence will be calculated.The research questions are as follows:(1)What is the status quo of pre-service English teachers’ TPACK-practical competence?(2)To what degree has M.Ed.program employed SQD strategies?(3)What’s the correlation between SQD strategies and pre-service English teachers’ TPACK-practical competence?The findings demonstrated that pre-service English teachers’ overall TPACK-practical competence was above the average(M=3.48).Among eight dimensions,pre-service English teachers showed confidence in Using ICT(Information and Communication Technology)representations to present instructional representations,Using ICT to understand subject content and Employing ICT-integrated teaching strategies.Nevertheless,their competence in Using ICT to understand and assess students,Planning ICT-infused curriculum,Applying ICT to instructional management and teaching contexts was relatively low.Participants stated that some factors such as lack of educators’guidance and practical experiences throughout teacher education program hindered their TPACK-practical competence development.Furthermore,the findings showed that M.Ed.program had employed SQD strategies sufficiently in general.Specifically,teacher educators as role models,reflection and authentic experiences were the most frequently used strategies while collaboration,feedback and instructional design were insufficiently employed in the program.The result of Pearson correlation analysis revealed a significantly and moderately positive correlation between teacher education strategies and pre-service English teaches’TPACK-practical competence(r=0.597).What’s more,correlation analysis between each strategy and TPACK-practical competence demonstrated that all the six strategies had significantly positive correlation with such competence.Results indicated that pre-service English teachers credited high value on each strategy’s benefits in their TPACK-practical competence development.Teacher educators’ modelling and authentic experiences were forceful power pushing their determination to develop such competence.They expressed that designing ICT-integrated lessons in a collaborative learning environment could help them identify their deficiency and set goals to make progress.Additionally,continuous feedback from educators and reflection collectively helps future teachers nail down the direction of development.The present study enriches the application of SQD-model and TPACK-practical framework in teacher education practices.Being the first empirical study integrating both theoretical concepts in domestic,the present study investigates the correlation between SQD strategies and pre-service English teachers’TPACK-practical competence,paving the way for improving different teacher education programs’educational levels in cultivating future teachers’ TPACK-practical competence.