Relationship Of Pedagogical Knowledge with Classroom Practices of Teaching Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The study sought to determine the relationship between pedagogical knowledge and classroom practices of teaching reading comprehension to secondary school English teachers. Through a simple random sampling technique, 210 secondary school English teachers were selected for this study. Research data were collected through two self-developed questionnaires, one about pedagogical knowledge and one pertaining to classroom practices of secondary school English teachers. Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the collected data. Based on the data analysis, most secondary school English teachers appear to lack pedagogical knowledge, as most of their responses were inappropriate. Most participants lacked knowledge regarding activities such as finding the main theme, summarizing, working in groups, scanning, skimming, brainstorming, and activities for different stages and types of reading. Reading comprehension techniques such as scanning, skimming, and visualizing were unclear to them. According to the research study results, they could not teach English reading comprehension using appropriate techniques and strategies. A positive relationship was also found between pedagogical knowledge and classroom practices of teaching reading comprehension among secondary school English teachers. On the basis of the findings, it is recommended that teachers receive proper training to improve their pedagogical knowledge of teaching reading comprehension. The training may be provided through in-service training and material on teaching the teachers reading comprehension.