EXAMINING PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF ESP TEACHERS

A prerequisite for successful knowledge transfer is for a teacher to have sound pedagogical content knowledge, i.e. to have understanding of students’ learning abilities, educational context, content and to employ appropriate instructional techniques. The aim of this paper was to study English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teachers’ teaching experience. For that purpose, 47 ESP teachers working at 7 Croatian universities voluntarily participated in an anonymous survey whose results were processed in SPSS. The results indicated that the teachers compile their teaching materials consulting various available resources, but rarely cooperate with their specialized course colleagues despite recognizing the importance and fruitfulness of such cooperation. In spite of feeling less confident about content knowledge, the teachers prepare thoroughly and present content in an appealing and interesting way. Finally, the teachers carry out course evaluations implementing students’ suggestions into their courses, all of which point to the teachers’ carefully considering all elements of the teaching process constantly aiming to improve both their own and students’ performance.