Effects of Opportunities to Learn in Teacher Education on the Development of Teachers’ Professional Knowledge of French as a Foreign Language

Abstract

Abstract. An important goal of teacher education (TE) is to improve pre-service teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), pedagogical knowledge (PK) and content knowledge (CK). It is not always clear what kind of opportunities to learn (OTL) in TE contribute to pre-service teachers' knowledge development. We compared different cohorts (N = 360) in TE, and studied the effects of OTL (PCK, PK, CK, and practical experiences) on pre-service teachers' PCK, PK and CK (in the domain of French as a foreign language). Second and third year students outperformed first year students on PCK, PK and CK (measured through quantitative test instruments). Positive effects of PCK OTL on PCK and PK are found, as well as positive effects of CK OTL on CK.Keywords: Teacher cognition; teacher professional knowledge; pedagogical content knowledge; teacher education; foreign language education. IntroductionTeachers' professional knowledge is believed to be central to student learning (Connelly, Clandinin, & He, 1997). Teachers' thinking is claimed to be related to their instructional approaches, and as a consequence, studying teacher knowledge is essential (Verloop, van Driel, & Meijer, 2001). Research on teachers' professional knowledge mainly follows the influential work of Shulman (1986;1987), who introduced pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as the unifying element between general pedagogical knowledge (PK) and content knowledge (CK). Most empirical research on teachers' professional knowledge focuses on the domain of mathematics . In this domain research has shown the importance of PCK and CK for instructional quality and student achievement (Baumert et al., 2010; Kunter et al., 2012). Also PK, which is not related to a specific disciplinary domain, has been shown to positively impact instructional quality (König & Pflanzl, 2016). It is therefore an important task of teacher education (TE) programs to foster pre-service teachers' PCK, PK and CK. Several studies show the impact of theoretical courses in TE on teachers' professional knowledge development, mainly in the domain of mathematics (e.g., Blömeke, Buchholtz, Suhl & Kaiser, 2014). According to Schmidt et al. (2011), the following opportunities to learn (OTL) during TE might impact teachers' professional knowledge: courses on CK, courses on PCK, courses on PK, and practical experiences. However, to date, the specific contribution of each of these four sources of OTL to the development of PCK, PK, and CK remains unclear.The present study focuses on the domain of French as a foreign language in primary TE in Flanders, Belgium. Test instruments are developed to assess PCK, PK and CK in this context. Relying on a crosssectional design, the study aims to investigate (1) whether pre-service teachers in different stages of TE differ in PCK, PK, and CK, and (2) whether specific OTL on PCK, PK, CK and practical experiences have an impact on teachers' professional knowledge. Shulman (1986;1987) defined PCK as "that special amalgam of content and pedagogy that is uniquely the prov...

Pedagogical content knowledge of French as a foreign language: differences between pre-service and in-service teachers

“…Pre-service teachers performed better on these items, probably because the conceptual knowledge that is necessary to solve these items is more closely aligned to the learning content provided in TE. Previous studies have shown the impact of courses in TE on pre-service teachers' theoretical knowledge (Evens, Elen, and Depaepe 2017;Blömeke et al 2014). In-service teachers probably did not learn about OI during their own TE, as OI is recently getting more attention in the field of language education (González Humanez and Arias 2009; Herazo Rivera 2010).…”

“…Research has shown that more courses on PCK lead to more PCK development (i.e. the number of learning opportunities) (Evens, Elen, and Depaepe 2017), and that the inclusion of specific topics in TE (i.e. the content of learning opportunities) also positively impacts PCK (Blömeke et al 2012;Qian and Youngs 2016).…”

“…The maximum score that can be obtained on the instrument is converted to 100. An extensive discussion of the instrument is presented in Evens, Elen, and Depaepe (2017).…”

Pedagogical content knowledge in preservice preschool teachers and its association with opportunities to learn during teacher training

“…Quantitative information about the number of credits and/or number of weeks devoted to student internships needs to be complemented with qualitative data on the theoretical courses that are foundational for and related to these practical internships, as well as the organization and content of reflective meetings with the mentors and the supervising team during the internship periods. As argued by other researchers (e.g., Evens et al 2017;Kleickmann et al 2013) both the quantity and the quality of students' practical experiences need to be taken into account in view of their PCK development. Moreover, practical experiences by themselves are insufficient: Critical theoretical reflections on teaching experiences can seriously enhance students' understanding of effective teaching interventions in the domain of (early) mathematics (Strawhecker 2005).…”

Reframing teaching knowledge in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL): A European perspective

“…Whereas teacher education aims to provide the basis for professional pedagogical practices and attitudes (Watzke, 2007), studies investigating the impact of teacher education on FL student teachers displayed varying results (e.g. Evens, Elen & Depaepe, 2017;Kleinhenz et al, 2007;König et al, 2016). Some studies found evidence for FL teacher education influencing student teachers (see Borg, 2011;Busch, 2010), whereas others reported no change during teacher education or no long-term effect of teacher education (see Graus & Coppen, 2016;Peacock, 2001;Phipps, 2007;Pickering, 2005;Urmston, 2003).…”