1. The Pilot Study of Research
Emerging Researchers‘ Conference, ECER 2013, 9-13 September, Bahcesehir University Istanbul, Turkey
The Pilot Study of Research
Concerning the Pedagogical Content Knowledge of
University Novices Teaching English for Specific Purposes
Jana Jašková
Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Education, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic
During the last few decades, Europe has been undergoing changes in the area of higher education with increasing attention to the learning of languages, particularly English language. Nowadays, most of the English taught at universities in Europe is English for Specific Purposes (ESP) (Far, 2008). The situation of novices teaching ESP at universities is very demanding as their previous education prepared them just for teaching English for General Purposes (EGP) usually at secondary schools. Therefore, the objective of this research is to describe the complicated process of acquiring and developing their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) (Shulman, 1986) during the first years of university teaching.
Research objective
The research aims 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 both on the individual components of PCK and on the general areas of teacher knowledge influencing PCK according to Grossman (1990):
Research methodology
The mixed methods research is planned for the doctoral thesis. The results of the first qualitative phase are going to be essential for the following quantitative phase used for the confirmation and specification of the obtained data:
Pilot study
In the spring of 2013 a pilot study of the qualitative research phase was realized in the form of a multiple case study. The aims of the pilot study were: to create and improve the input interview scenario and categorial system for coding and to formulate and compare the respondents‘ interpretations. Three Czech ESP university teachers were subjected to semi-structured episodic interviews concerning the first three years of their teaching ESP at universities. All the interviews were transcribed according to their audio recordings and the literal transcriptions were coded with the help of Atlas.ti7 software. The interpretations of the respondents‘ interviews were created as well as confirmed by communicative validation.
Results
During the first three years of their teaching ESP, only Respondent 1 showed changes in the individual components of PCK, which documented PCK development:
As Respondent 2 and Respondent 3 did not show PCK development, which could be caused by insufficiently detailed interviews, the interview scenario will be elaborated in more detail and used in another pilot study. The knowledge influencing PCK will be eliminated from the research because its influence on PCK has been proved and these findings in fact do not answer the main research question.
Conclusion
The intention of the 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. This research may highlight the necessity of conceptual changes in the preparatory as well as further education of ESP university teachers in the Czech Republic, which is in accordance with the planned reform of Czech higher educational system, based on the principles of improving quality and its evaluation according to European standards. The results of this research can also have an impact on other countries in Europe where the situation of ESP university teachers is similar to the Czech Republic.
The components of PCK
Conceptions of purposes for teaching subject matter
How were teachers formulating the purposes for teaching ESP during the first 3 years of teaching?
Curricular knowledge
How were teachers acquiring and extending their knowledge of ESP curriculum organization and materials during the first 3 years of teaching?
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?
Knowledge of students’ understanding
How were teachers finding out ESP learners’ conceptions and misconceptions during the first 3 years of teaching?
The knowledge influencing PCK
Knowledge of context
How were teachers acquiring and extending their knowledge of the specifics of the university and ESP learners during the first 3 years of teaching?
Subject matter knowledge
How were teachers acquiring and extending their knowledge of their students’ branch of study (economics, medicine, mechanical engineering etc.) and ESP (technical terminology etc.) during the first 3 years of teaching?
General pedagogical knowledge
How were teachers extending their general pedagogical knowledge during the first 3 years of teaching?
Respondent 1 2 3
The components of PCK
Conceptions of purposes for teaching subject matter
PCK development
---
Curricular knowledge
Knowledge of instructional strategies
Knowledge of students’ understanding
The knowledge influencing PCK
Knowledge of context
Influence on PCK
Subject matter knowledge
General pedagogical knowledge
QUALITATIVE PHASE
QUANTITATIVE PHASE T1
Interv. T2
Interv. Tx
Interv.
Questionnaire T1 T2 T3 T4 Ty
RESULTS
RESULTS
Research phase
Research sample
Data
collection
analysis
Qualitative
The selection
of 12 available
Czech ESP
university teachers
Individual
semi-structured
episodic interviews
Open coding
of the literal transcriptions of audio recordings
Quantitative
The whole population of electronically accessible Czech ESP university teachers
Anonymous electronic
questionnaires
Statistical processing of closed questions
Literature
Far, M. M. (2008). On the relationship between ESP & EGP: a general perspective. English for Specific Purposes World, 7(1), 1– Available from
Grossman, P. (1990). The making of a teacher: teacher knowledge and teacher education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4–14. Available from
Contact: Mgr. Jana Jašková, Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Poříčí 7, Brno , Czech Republic,