Abstract
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) has been given a lot of attention in the academic field in recent years, inparticular in the field of teacher cognition and teacher knowledge. This research aimed to investigate the views on language (regarded as one aspect of PCK) shown in the practices of six Chinese in-service teachers teaching College English at two universities in the south of China by using a qualitative multiple case study approach. The existing literature guided the current research, which investigated teachers’ views on knowledge to guide language teacher education and development in mainland China. The results of the data analysis in this study revealed that the participant teachers were generally experienced in their use of declarative knowledge, but possibly unskilled in their use of strategic knowledge. To summarize, views on knowledge encompasses teachers’ creative ways of thinking and their personal understanding of the discipline of teaching. It is the teachers’ ability to endow declarative knowledge with personal significance. Views on knowledge include teachers’ personal wisdom that transforms procedural knowledge into strategic knowledge (the ability to solve problems in classroom teaching practice). It entails teachers’ constant updating and development of their personal pedagogical knowledge in the teaching practice of particular subject matter.
Highlights
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) has proved helpful in research about teacher cognition, such as studies on teachers’ thinking processes [39] and about the practical characteristics of the teacher knowledge base [36]
This line of research has defined the concept of pedagogical content competence (PCC) [40]
Though different types of teacher knowledge were shown in the data, the analysis showed that the participants’ knowledge structures needed improvement
Summary
The concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK, a combination of pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge) proposed by Shulman [31], was described as teachers’ understanding of “the most useful forms of representation of the most powerful analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations, and demonstrations: the ways of representing and formulating the subject” (p.9). It has provided a crucial way for scholars to conduct deep study into the relationship between teachers and teaching. These categories have examined how teachers’ views on their subjects impact their teaching methods; the need for teachers to understand how well their students master subject matter knowledge in order to teach effectively; and how teachers’ lack of subject matter knowledge influences the formation of PCK
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