Chapter Oneliterature review of Teachers’ Personal PracticalKnowledge
Now it is commonly accepted that teachers’ personal practicalknowledge is an important part of teachers’ knowledge which is thecritical factor of teachers’ development. However, the birth of theconcept has undergone a tough and long process. The focus ofteachers’ development that shifted from external force to internal forcehas brought the importance of teachers’ subjective consciousness andtheir activity to the scholars’ view. It has exerted a far-reachinginfluence on teachers’ knowledge research.
1.1 A Brief Introduction to Teachers’ Personal Practical Knowledge
The more attention teachers’ subjective consciousness and theiractivity draw, the more doubt and challenge the traditional teachers’knowledge structure gets. The doubt and challenge accelerate the birthof teachers’ personal practical knowledge because the top-downtraining model has a small quantitative effect on narrowing the gapbetween the teachers’ teaching and education theories, which restrictsteachers’ development.According to TESOL, one of the most authoritative, influentialand world-class core journals in the field of English language teaching,during the mid 1980s and the early 1990s, essays on theories ofTESOL and teaching methods overwhelmed with quantity, while afew essays on English teacher education and development were foundon TESOL (贾爱武 61-6). The case shows the viewpoint of teachers’knowledge in that period that theories of TESOL and teachingmethods are what teachers need and teachers can apply all kinds oftheories and techniques to their teaching gradually if they are equippedwith those theories and techniques. In that period, scholars tried toanswer the question of what knowledge teachers need. Shulman(1987), a representative figure of teachers’ knowledge, dividedteachers’ knowledge into seven types: general pedagogical knowledge,curricular knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge oflearner and their characteristics, knowledge of educational context, andknowledge of other curricula. Pedagogical content knowledgedistinguishes the viewpoint of teachers knowledge from the traditionalone proposed before Shulmen. And it is pedagogical contentknowledge that makes teacher professionalization possible. Actually,the idea implies the bud of teachers’ personal practical knowledge.Michael Polanyi (1983), who created the term “tacit knowledge”which is difficult to be conveyed, explored the primitive value ofindividual in the intellectual system of mankind. His viewpoint ofknowledge has been introduced into teaching research.Elliot (1991) proposes that teacher development calls for a newconcept of teachers’ knowledge, especially the practical science.
1.2 The Definition of English Teachers’ Personal Practical KnowledgeEnglish teachers’ personal practical knowledge refers to theknowledge which comes into being in each English teacher’s teachingthrough teachers’ reflective practice, involving English teachers’ andstudents’ lived experience in the lifeworld.In the first place, English teachers’ personal practical knowledgeis a complete individual knowledge system generated in Englishteaching, including tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Englishteachers’ and students’ lived experience in the lifeworld provideEnglish teachers’ starting and ending points for English teachers topractice their und，英语毕业论文，英语论文题目 |
