Session Information
ERG SES G10, Post-Graduate Education
Paper Session
Contribution
The objective of the dissertation research is to describe the process of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development of novices teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at universities in the Czech Republic. PCK is one of the basic categories of teacher knowledge and represents the connection of pedagogy and content, which means that the teacher has to choose an appropriate subject matter and use various forms of its presentations to be able to provide opportunities for learning. The novices’ situation is highly challenging because during their university studies they were usually prepared for teaching English for General Purposes at upper secondary schools. For that reason the teachers do not have any knowledge about both university didactics and the professional specialization of their workplace. Moreover, they do not have any experience with teaching ESP.
The research is supposed to answer the following question: How is the PCK of Czech university novices teaching ESP acquired and developed? This relatively wide question can be divided into several sub-questions which are focused on four individual components of PCK according to Grossman (1990, pp. 5–9): (a) conceptions of purposes for teaching subject matter – How were teachers formulating the purposes for teaching ESP during the first 3 years of teaching?; (b) curricular knowledge – How were teachers acquiring and extending their knowledge of ESP curriculum organization and materials during the first 3 years of teaching?; (c) knowledge of instructional strategies – How were teachers acquiring and extending their knowledge of ESP instructional strategies and subject matter representations during the first 3 years of teaching?; (d) knowledge of students’ understanding – How were teachers finding out ESP students’ conceptions and misconceptions during the first 3 years of teaching?
PCK is a complex phenomenon. The range of approaches and methods investigating PCK corresponds with its complexity. Besides quantitative studies, also qualitative approaches are developing considerably. Most of studies concerning PCK are based on the combination of several methods (Janík, 2008, p. 32). Nowadays, the research studies dealing with the issue of acquiring and developing PCK are relatively broadly represented in various fields of education. In this area there are also many methods of data collection, for example individual interviews (Brebera & Kostková, 2008; Henze, van Driel, & Verloop, 2008; Píšová, 2009; Seymour & Lehrer, 2006) or group interviews (Brebera & Kostková, 2008; Píšová, 2008; van Driel, Verloop, & de Vos, 1998). Among other common methods there are text analyses which relate to various kinds of texts – questionnaires (van Driel et al., 1998), reflective diaries (Píšová & Brebera, 2007; Seymour & Lehrer, 2006), on-line forums (Brebera & Kostková, 2008; Píšová & Brebera, 2007), or written tasks (van Driel et al., 1998) such as flow diagrams (Píšová, 2008), narrations on a given topic (Brebera & Kostková, 2008), proposals of school educational programme (Píšová & Brebera, 2007), evaluations of teachers’ own teaching activities (Brebera & Kostková, 2008), analyses of corrected students’ homework (van Driel et al., 1998) etc. Teaching observations are usually used in long-term studies (Seymour, 2006; van Driel et al., 1998) sometimes including also field notes (Seymour & Lehrer, 2006). A systematic review of 60 empirical studies on PCK in the area of mathematics conducted by Depaepe, Verschaffel and Kelchtermans (2013) revealed that research methods deployed to capture teachers’ PCK included tests (7), questionnaires (3), interviews (12), lesson observations (9), observations of meetings (11), document analyses (12) and concept mapping (1).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bergman, M. M. (2011). O nezbytnosti třetí generace ve smíšeném designu, teorii a výzkumu: o překonávání nekompatibility kvalitativního a kvantitativního výzkumu. Pedagogická orientace, 21(4), 457–473. Brebera, P., & Kostková, K. (2008). K možnostem zkoumání profesní kompetence učitele cizích jazyků v některých jejích doménách. In T. Janík, et al., Metodologické problémy výzkumu didaktických znalostí obsahu (pp. 51–64). Brno: Paido. Depaepe, F., Verschaffel, L., & Kelchtermans, G. (2013). Pedagogical content knowledge: a systematic review of the way in which the concept has pervaded mathematics educational research. Teaching and Teacher Education, 34, 12–25. Grossman, P. (1990). The making of a teacher: teacher knowledge and teacher education. New York: Teachers College Press. Henze, I., van Driel, J. H., & Verloop, N. (2008). Development of experienced science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of models of the solar system and the universe. International Journal of Science Education, 30(10), 1321–1342. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&hid=103&sid=773b1111-03c7-4bd3-8f03-733852f97d31%40sessionmgr104 Janík, T. (2008). Zkoumání didaktických znalostí obsahu: vybrané přístupy, metody a techniky. In T. Janík, et al., Metodologické problémy výzkumu didaktických znalostí obsahu (pp. 25–35). Brno: Paido. Píšová, M. (2008). Příspěvek k diskusi o metodologických problémech diagnostiky didaktické znalosti obsahu. In T. Janík, et al., Metodologické problémy výzkumu didaktických znalostí obsahu (pp. 37–49). Brno: Paido. Píšová, M. (2009). Od oboru k obsahu vzdělávání a učivu: z příběhu učitele-experta. Pedagogika, 59(2), 182–197. Píšová, M., & Brebera, P. (2007). K procesům utváření didaktických znalostí obsahů v raných fázích učitelské dráhy. In T. Janík, et al., Pedagogical content knowledge nebo didaktická znalost obsahu? (pp. 75–89). Brno: Paido. Seymour, J. (2006). How does pedagogical content knowledge emerge from classroom teaching? In S. Alatorre, et al., Proceedings of the Twenty Eighth Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 805–808). Mérida: Universidad Pedagógica Nacional. Retrieved from http://www.pmena.org/2006/cd/TEACHER%20KNOWLEDGE/TEACHER%20KNOWLEDGE-0004.pdf Seymour, J., & Lehrer, R. (2006). Tracing the evolution of pedagogical content knowledge as the development of interanimated discourses. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 15(4), 549–582. Van Driel, J. H., Verloop, N., & de Vos, W. (1998). Developing science teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 35(6), 673–695. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1098-2736(199808)35:6%3C673::AID-TEA5%3E3.0.CO;2-J/pdf
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