Subjective perceptions of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) university teachers’ professional beginnings: Quantitative research into pedagogical content knowledge

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present methodology and results of a quantitative phase within a research into English for Specific Purposes university teachers and their subjectively perceived changes in pedagogical content knowledge from a retrospective view of their professional beginnings. The introduction describes the investigated issues and explains key concepts. The first chapter refers to the theoretical background of teacher professional development. Since the quantitative research phase is a part of a mixed research design, the second chapter deals with the whole research including the research objective and questions. The third chapter is devoted to the quantitative research phase during which an anonymous electronic questionnaire was sent to the whole population of Czech university teachers of English for Specific Purposes and processed statistically as well as descriptively. The fourth chapter presents the obtained quantitative data discussed within the individual components of pedagogical content knowledge - conceptions of purposes for teaching subject matter, curricular knowledge, knowledge of instructional strategies, and knowledge of students’ understanding. The conclusion summarises all the information and proposes some recommendations for pedagogical practice.