Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Pre-service Teachers Learning to Teach English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is the necessary professional knowledge for teachers and an important feature to distinguish teachers from scholars. The development of pre-service teachers’ PCK affects the quality of education. What are the aspects of the PCK of English pre-service teachers improved through educational practice? What are the influencing factors? To improve pre-service English teachers better understand the importance of educational practice, promote the development of professional knowledge and teaching competence, a questionnaire survey was used to study the development of PCK of pre-service English teachers, analyzed the development and the changes of pre-service teachers’ PCK in the educational practice. Pre-service English teachers have developed in the aspects of knowledge of pedagogical, knowledge of students, knowledge of subject matter, knowledge of environmental contexts. And the influencing factors mainly included communication with peers, experienced teachers; teaching experience and reflection; and personal observation. It indicates that the normal universities should carry out more practical courses, and demonstrates that pre-service teachers should pay more attention to educational practice, accumulate teaching experience, improve teaching quality and teaching competence, and strive to become an excellent and qualified teacher.