The Qualitative Phase of Research on the Pedagogical Content Knowledge of University Novices Teaching English for Specific Purposes
Author(s):
Jana Jaskova (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2014
Network:
21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Format:
Paper

Session Information

ERG SES G10, Post-Graduate Education

Paper Session

Time:
2014-09-02
09:00-10:30
Room:
FPCEUP - 249
Chair:
Henrique Vaz

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

Since there are many methods of investigating PCK, the selection of an appropriate method always depends on the focus of each research. For the dissertation research looking into the novices’ PCK development seen from the experienced teachers’ point of view, it is possible to use methods focused on the teachers’ look into their own past, such as interviews or questionnaires. The mixed methods methodology is planned for the research because of its benefits of complementarity between qualitative and quantitative approaches (Bergman, 2011, p. 470). The results of the qualitative phase, carried out in the form of interviews with twelve Czech ESP university teachers, are essential for the following quantitative phase which is realized in the form of electronic questionnaires sent to the whole population of Czech electronically accessible ESP university teachers and which is used for the confirmation and specification of the obtained qualitative data. This contribution deals with the methodology of the first, qualitative phase. Within the phase, a pilot study was carried out with three respondents and its results, which were discussed during EERA Emerging Researchers’ Conference in 2013, led to the necessity of elaborating a new interview scenario which would be focused only on the individual components of PCK, elaborated in more detail and used in a further pilot study. Therefore, a new detailed scenario has been created on the basis of theory and tested in the second pilot study, where a new categorial system for coding, based on this scenario, has also been specified. The second pilot study has been conducted in the form of a multiple case study. Four ESP university teachers have been selected by convenience sampling. A semi-structured interview about the first three years of teaching ESP at universities has been conducted with each of them. All the interviews have been transcribed according to their audio recordings. The literal transcriptions have been coded by two independent researchers with the help of the new categorial system. The respondents’ statements have been categorised, paraphrased and summarised during a thematic analysis. The individual interpretations have been confirmed by communicative validation.

Expected Outcomes

The final qualitative data from the second pilot study will be presented at the conference. For example, for the first component of PCK (conceptions of purposes for teaching subject matter), it has been found out that during the first 3 years of teaching most teachers were formulating the purposes for teaching ESP in accordance with the syllabus for their subject, only later some of them were able to find out gaps in the syllabus and set out other individual objectives according to their preferences. Besides the goals in the area of ESP, which was mostly the knowledge of professional vocabulary, some teachers gradually began to introduce beginning students into the university way of study or lead them to critical thinking. Educational objectives were not very important for them, as the students were adults; the teachers only mentioned some problems with plagiarism or students’ empathy during classes. Some teachers admitted unconscious effort to be a model for students in various areas. In conclusion, most teachers could see some changes in their determining the purposes for teaching ESP during the first 3 years, but not only for better, some of them mentioned changes for worse. The intention of this research is not only to extend the scientific theory concerning the processes of acquiring and developing PCK, but also to point out the difficult situation of novices teaching ESP at Czech universities. It may be expected that the research will reveal the necessity of conceptual changes in the preparatory as well as further education of these teachers. The research results could also have an impact on other countries in Europe where the situation of ESP university teachers might be similar.

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

Author Information

Jana Jaskova (presenting / submitting)
Faculty of Education, Masaryk University
Department of English Language and Literature
Brno

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