A Study On Novice EFL Teachers’ Development In Universities From The Perspective Of The Constructivism

The issues of teacher training and teacher development have become central to the field of teacher education. Teachers are the final decision-makers and executors in the classroom where the instructions happen and thereby influence to the greatest extent what actually goes inside the classroom and, further, the minds of the students. Yet, compared with research done on teacher education in general, research on EFL teacher education is quite few and has had a relatively later start. Although the research of scholars is rich in content, most of the research focuses only on one aspect of language teachers. Besides, little empirical work has been done related to the novice EFL teachers.Therefore, the present study, centered on the EFL teacher’s professional development, designs the empirical study according to the teaching and growing of four novice EFL teachers. Through the ways of their journals, observations, meetings and structured interviews, the challenges and confusions they confront are analyzed and decoded. In the end, the constructive strategy is provided for their lifelong teaching career, which is to reflect. Reflection is the only and effective bridge between the past and the present, theories and practice. The aim of the present study is to awaken the awareness of the professional development of the novice language teachers and promote their development in the future.The main findings of the study are as follows:1. Though intimidated at first in the teaching, the four participant teachers clearly know what they are doing in class. This finding is somewhat different from the alleged belief of implicit theories’either formally or informally asserted and somehow exhibits the novice teachers’ confidence and ambition of being a qualified language teacher. The teachers have clear and well-articulated views of what makes a good university EFL teacher and good EFL learner.2. The teachers’ways of teaching have not come out of void. They are constructed drawing on a variety of sources and developed by themselves as a result of the interaction of these source factors. They are the teachers’ readiness to learn and upgrade their understanding about language and language learning and teaching, hands-on experience, pre-service formal teacher training, constant reflective evaluation of their own practice and dedication to teaching. These factors and sources influence their classroom decision-making throughout the process of learning to teach. Experience is valued as having played an essential role in learning to teach. Experience, be it positive or negative, offers the novice teachers a mirror against which they perceive and reflect on their own teaching practice.3. The teachers’ process of developing their way of teaching is fundamentally evolutionary, but this does not necessarily mean that their way of teaching evolves at an average speed over the time. The critical events may lead to the critical learning moments to occur. What is significant is that they all agree that reflection is crucial in the professional development, but whenever they ’reflect’, they would refer to theoretical concepts. For these teachers, reflection bridges the past to the present, theories to practice or vice versa.