A Research On Current Situation Of English Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge In Rural Junior High Schools

Since Schulman proposed Pedagogical Content Knowledge(PCK)in1986,scholars have been studying PCK for nearly thirty years.PCK is the most useful part of teachers’ professional knowledge for teacher teaching and is the core of teachers’ professional development.Therefore,it will directly reflect the mastery of teachers’ professional knowledge and the quality of teachers’ professional development.Scholars have conducted a lot of theoretical and empirical research on PCK both at home and abroad,but relatively few researches on English subject,and even fewer on English subject in rural areas.Therefore,this article takes Laohekou County in Hubei Province as an example to conduct an in-depth study of the current situation of rural junior high school English teachers’ PCK and the influence of different factors on English teachers’ PCK then come up with some corresponding suggestions for English teachers.There are two main research questions in this paper: 1.What is the current situation of rural junior high school English teachers’ PCK? 2.What are the differences in their PCK among rural junior high school English teachers with different years of teaching experiences and educational background ?A questionnaire survey was conducted based on 150 English teachers from 10 rural junior high schools in Laohekou County,Hubei Province.15 English teachers were randomly selected from three schools for the interview survey.The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 data statistical analysis software.The research results indicate that: first,the overall level of rural junior high school English teachers’ PCK in Laohekou County is at an above-medium level,but the five dimensions are not balanced.Among them,the knowledge of learners mastered best by English teachers,followed by knowledge of content organization,knowledge of teaching context and knowledge of self-reflection,knowledge of English teaching purpose is relatively weak;second,there are significant differences in the PCK of English teachers of different years of teaching experiences,colleges teachers graduated from and whether they majored in English or other subjects,but teachers’ academic qualifications have little effect on teachers’ PCK.Based on the above conclusions,some corresponding suggestions are put forward from the five dimensions of PCK for improving English teachers’ PCK and English teachers’ professional development.Due to the limitations of time,resources and ability,this study puts forward further research recommendations on this basis.