Abstract:
This thesis investigates the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) at the Indonesian junior secondary school level. Drawing on the notion of Shulman’s (1987) concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), it examines teacher knowledge of curriculum, content, students and pedagogy in teaching EFL writing.
Employing a mixed-methods case study approach, this study utilised in-depth semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and stimulated recalls to analyse this knowledge through both self-report and instances of practice. It involved 15 teachers, seven of them were those who have been professionally certified under the Indonesian laws regarding teacher quality, and eight of them were not.
The findings of the study suggest that, regardless of their capable demonstrations of specific teaching areas in the observed writing lessons, the certified and non-certified teacher participants’ PCK articulation and enactment were, generally, considered to be at a low level. the present study considered that factors that may have contributed to the unexpectedly, relatively low PCK level were associated with an imbalance between knowledge of English language and knowledge of the content specifically related to writing instruction that is apparent from the analysis of EFL pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher professional development programmes. One unexpected finding was that the non-certified teachers showed superior strengths in their knowledge of their students, compared to their certified colleagues. Students’ typical profiles in their schools seemed to contribute significantly to how the non-certified teachers responded to their learning needs.
The present study makes recommendations to improve the professional quality of English teachers. EFL pre-service teacher education should offer a balance between language-knowledge and pedagogically-related content and ensure adequate emphasis on practical dimensions of instruction. Sustaining and improving certified teachers could be enhanced by engaging them in an on-going and advanced professional development programme and instituting a continuing evaluation programme.
