INTRODUCTION

Since the 1980s, there have been a growing number of studies on expertise in teaching. These studies, inspired by investigations of expertise in other domains, have been motivated by the need to understand the special form of knowledge held by teachers as well as the need to demonstrate that experts in teaching possess skills and knowledge that are as complex and sophisticated as experts in other professions (Berliner 1994).

SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS OF TEACHING EXPERTISE

This chapter outlines the approaches and perspectives adopted in studies of teaching expertise and the corresponding characterizations produced. In addition, it explores the possible reasons for the apparently conflicting images of expert teachers presented and the significance of research on teaching expertise for the education and professionalization of teachers. As teaching expertise is a relatively new area in the field of TESOL, this review covers studies on teaching expertise in other subject disciplines that have been drawn on.

Studying expertise in a specific domain necessarily involves investigations of the ways of knowing, acting, and being of experts in that domain. There are as yet no established common criteria for identifying expert teachers. This is not only because teaching is situated and, therefore, it would be difficult to have a set of objective criteria that can be applied across all contexts (Leinhardt 1990; Turner-Bisset 2001). It is also because there may be certain dimensions of excellence in teaching that are culture-specific (Ferrari 2002; Mieg 2001). As pointed out in Tsui (2005), in the Japanese culture, close interpersonal relationships (referred to as kizuna or kakawari) are considered a prerequisite for teaching and learning. Developing kizuna with students is more important than developing teaching competence (Shimahara and Sakai 1995). In the Chinese culture, master teachers (a term used for expert teachers) must possess two qualities: commitment to students and commitment to the subject of teaching. Although commitment to students is common to all cultures, commitment to subject of teaching is probably distinctively Chinese. It embraces both a cognitive dimension, which entails a profound knowledge of the subject matter (Ma 1999), and an affective dimension, which entails a genuine interest in the subject matter (see also Tsui and Wong, in press).