Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Technology in Teaching
As science and technology develop at a fast speed, human society evolves withan irresistible trend. This driving force for the 21stcentury has brought fundamentalchanges to all social sectors. Tools are different, communication is different,information is different, and work is different. All these have contributed to adifferent Educational system. The application of those advanced electronic devicesto teaching and learning is on the rise in those developed countries like US andBritain. As for China, most classrooms are equipped with multi-media tools.Computer-assisted language teaching and learning has also been utilized in mostuniversities. All of these have changed the landscape of EFL teaching. In collegeEFL teaching, teachers can teach cross-cultural communication by having studentssearch for information on the internet; they can efficiently exhibit language pointsthrough the use of PPT or PPS; they can share information with their studentsthrough the use of blog, personal page, email, etc; they can check students’self-study through the use of on-line learning system. Besides, various othertechnologies, like on-line discussion boards and chat rooms, have been applied tosupport communication and information sharing between teachers and students.Technology changes the ways that information can be obtained, manipulated,and displayed. It alters the nature of interactions between students and their teachers.Technology will gradually transform the nature of instruction, and consequently thenature of teacher education. In order to better prepare for it, teachers should have tolearn how to deal with the use of technology in teaching, while teacher educatorsshould learn to better prepare teachers for the effective application of technology toteaching.
1.2 Teacher Knowledge
Teacher knowledge has long been considered critical to effective teaching, andit always receives attention as policy makers and researchers attempt to improvestudents’ achievement and learning (Cannon, 2017). Research on teacher knowledgehave had various foci. Ball (1990a) identified three phases of research on teaching,in which teacher knowledge was the first (from the 1960s to 1970s) and the thirdphase (from the 1980s). The first phase focused on the identification of thecharacteristics of good teachers (Ball, 1990a). The second phase of research onteaching, by examining what teachers did, concentrated on general pedagogicalstrategies, such as the utilization of praise. Similar to the first phase, the focus of thethird phase was related to teachers’ thoughts and decisions.Existing research (Anthony & Walshaw, 2017) have proved that effectiveteaching is dependent on teacher knowledge. In addition, many studies (Ball, 1990b;Even, 1993) have suggested that a lack of teacher knowledge in preservice andinservice teachers causes ineffective teaching. However, what’s teacher knowledge?What kind of knowledge should a teacher possess in order to realize effectiveteaching? The knowledge required for teachers has varied greatly throughout history(Cox, 2017). By the mid-1980s, the pedagogy knowledge had been the focus ofteacher knowledge, leaving content knowledge ancillary to it (Shulman, 1986).Shulman (1986) believed that teacher knowledge should be the effective integrationof content and pedagogy knowledge, for good teaching required a complexin，英语论文范文，英语论文题目 |
