An Investigation into Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK): Teachers’ Views on Knowledge

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.