Abstract

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in language teaching has received attention from educators and researchers alike from the late 1900s until the present. While this pedagogical framework has been employed and reconceptualized in hundreds of published studies, it has been a challenge to concretize PCK for specific subject matters such as language teaching. Drawing explicit PCK principles from language teacher educator (LTE) perspectives and practices is a practicable attempt to capture a contextualized PCK in language teacher preparation. Thus, this study explored PCK through developing lesson exemplars that are informed by LTEs perceived effective instructional practices in the teaching methodology courses. The practitioner-driven inquiry is situated in a Philippine teacher education institution particularly in the preservice English teacher education program. Open-ended questionnaires, classroom observations, and focus group discussions were used to survey and examine LTEs instructional practices in teaching methods courses. Coding of discussion annotations, observation notes, and questionnaire responses identified the following perceived effective practices: (1) providing support through modeling, preparatory tasks, and input on critical issues in teaching methodology; (2) promoting collaboration through activities and assessment tasks; (3) employing experiential learning through demonstration teaching; and (4) fostering creativity through innovative strategies in lesson planning. The identified practices informed a ten-component lesson exemplar for teaching PCK. These lesson components included: setting up the context, identifying objectives, highlighting the PCK focus, modeling the concept, conducting the workshop, evaluating the teaching methodology, reflecting on implications to language teaching practice, synthesizing learning, and reflecting on current issues and practices.