Teachers' Professional Development Based On The Learning Community

"With the deepening of new curriculum reform,higher requirements for English teachers' comprehensive quality have been put forward.Many experts,scholars and teachers have realized the close relationship between teacher training and teachers'professional development.However,the combination of teacher training theory and practice is not close enough,and teachers' initiative of learning in the current teacher training program is not strong.In face of these existing problems,conducting the teacher training programs as a learning community becomes an essential task to explore.On the basis of learning organization theory(Senge,1990)and constructive learning theory(Piaget,1971&Vygotsky,1978),conducting this high school Leading English teachers' training program is based on the four requirements of the learning community:shared vision,collaborative culture,dialogical learning and sustainable development.This study aims to explore how this teacher training program is conducted and to analyze this program's impacts on teachers'professional development.Specifically,the following two research questions are to be addressed:(1)How is the high school leading English teachers' training program conducted as a learning community?(2)What are the program's impacts on teachers'professional development?The research participants of the study are one training class of 32 high school leading English teachers from Zhejiang province and two university teachers who have rich experience in English teacher training.This training program is designated by the provincial Department of Education,which was conducted from June 2015 to July 2015.This research adopts both the qualitative research methods and the quantitative research methods.Through participant observation,video-recording,firstly the study demonstrates the findings from the inquiry into this teacher training program.Then through a questionnaire and interviews,the study presents the leading teachers' responses and analyzes the program's impacts on their professional development.Through data analysis,the findings indicate that:First,the study results demonstrate how the training program was conducted from the four requirements of the learning community.They are presented from the four aspects:the shared vision constructed,the collaborative culture created,the dialogical learning conducted and the sustainable development pursued.As for constructing the shared vision,the teacher participants expressed their individual visions in the needs investigation and then reached a consensus on the learning targets and the learning plan with the guidance of two program organizers.As for creating the collaborative culture,the teacher participants actively engaged themselves in team ice-breaking action and collaborative exploration.As for conducting the dialogical learning,the teacher participants actively participated in the learning activities of theme-based learning and demonstrative class analysis.Last but not least,as for pursuing the sustainable development,the teacher participants implemented their dynamic resource sharing and strengthened their E-community maintenance.Second,on the basis of the data collected by the questionnaire and the interviews,the second research question about the program's impacts on the teachers' professional development is addressed.According to the questionnaire statistics,most of them agreed or totally agreed with the three major statements indicating their professional development achieved in this program,namely,(1)this program enriched their professional beliefs,including educational beliefs and professional attitude(Mean=4.1);(2)it increased their professional knowledge,including subject knowledge,pedagogical knowledge and practical knowledge(Mean=4.41);(3)it strengthened their professional ability,including teaching design ability,scientific research ability and self-development ability(Mean=4.39).The result confirms that the teacher participants really experienced their progress in professional development.The conclusions can be made into three aspects:(1)this program enriched the teachers' professional beliefs;(2)it increased the teachers'professional knowledge;(3)it strengthened the teachers' professional competence.From this study,implications can be drawn that the adoption of learning community practice in a teacher training program is likely to effectively promote teacher professional development.Thus,further research is proposed for learning community practice to be conducted in other types of teacher training programs.