From Separation To Integration: The Professional Development Of Teachers And School Function

A school is the outcome of the development of society to a certain stage and it is the important place for well-planned, well-organized and systemic education. The function of the school is varied and reinforced along with the development of the society. With the bringing forth of the ideal of lifelong education, the formation of the learning society, and teachers' professional development, new challenges have raised the function of the school. So we should reconsider teachers and the functions of the school. Historically, there were the there stages: the elder served as teachers, teachers were not treated as a profession, and teachers were considered as a profession. Today, teachers face the task of individual professionalism. In the past, schools were seen as places where students developed their knowledge and abilities. The mission of the school is to make students become fully developed. Because teachers are "predominant" in the student development, they are placed in the important position. Nowadays, under the new conditions, the school should possess the function of teachers' development. It should be the place not only for students' development, but also for teacher's development. The school where the teacher works is also the most important aspect in teachers' professional development process. The school has its special function in teachers' professional development, and no other institutes or organization can compare with it. Teachers' professional development and the development of the school should be combined. The development of the school is based on teachers' professional development, and teachers' professional development needs the school to prop it up. The function of the school and teachers' professional development should blend together so as to promote common development of schools and teachers. This is also the trend and the direction of the education reform.This article follows a time line, displaying the functions of the school and teachers' professional development in history. The function of school and the teachers' professional development process have experienced self-separation spontaneously, and purposive self-separation to unification. There is logic relationship between them. The function of the school is analyzed together with the condition, foundation, characteristic and practice of teachers' professional development. The function of school should be reestablished from the aspects of culture, system, training, management and evaluation etc. so as to promote development of the school and teachers' professional development.