The General Pedagogical Knowledge Underpinning Early Childhood Education Teachers’ Classroom Behaviors Who Teach English as a Foreign Language in Chinese Kindergartens

Abstract

There is limited understanding of the general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) of early childhood education (ECE) teachers who teach English as a foreign language (EFL). This study therefore explored GPK categories and subcategories in six Chinese ECE EFL teachers using stimulated recall classroom observation. The deductive and inductive data analysis revealed that GPK consists of four categories and ten subcategories. The four knowledge categories were child development, the objectives and content of teaching, the act of teaching, and classroom management. Additionally, the study found that the novice teachers had similarities with the experienced teachers in number and type of GPK. The study also found differences: the subcategory how to use child-appropriate instructional methods was top for the experienced teachers, but not for the novice teachers; the novice teachers mentioned classroom management more than the experienced teachers; the novice teachers showed a negative tendency toward the act of teaching, while the experienced teachers were positive. The implications are discussed.

Keywords

• early childhood English education
• GPK
• English as a foreign language
• novice teachers
• experienced teachers