Training Needs Analysis Of The Rural Secondary School English Teachers’ Professional Development In Eastern Yunnan Province

The Rural Teacher’s Support Plan(2015-2020)was issued to enhance the qualities of rural teachers in remote rural areas,to fill the gap between the teaching quality of urban teachers and that of rural teachers,and thus to improve the educational equality.This study focused on the topic of the training needs of rural English teachers.A thorough literature of training needs in terms of teachers’ professional development were reviewed.Interviews and questionnaires were applied to collect data and the Organization-Task-Person(OTP)analysis framework was adopted to analyze the current training needs of secondary English teachers in Eastern Yunnan province.Suggestions in improving the training work of rural English teachers were given.The research sites included 16 rural secondary schools in County M and County L of Eastern Yunnan Province.A total of 105 rural English teachers were selected to participate in the questionnaire survey,15 of them were given structured interviews to further explore their training needs.Based on Organization-Task-Person(OTP)analysis framework,the English teachers’ needs for training in Eastern Yunnan rural secondary schools were systematically evaluated.The professional development training needs of teachers were analyzed from three aspects: Organizational analysis(trainer,training method,evaluation method,training time and training place),Task analysis(training contents),and Personnel analysis(gender,teaching years,title and educational background).The current training situations obtained from data analysis showed that: 1)There were great training needs for rural English teachers but they without enough training opportunities;2)Teachers were trained for internal motivations to improve their own qualities and teaching skills;3)Most of the rural English teachers had professional development awareness but their autonomy development awareness was not strong enough.The results showed as follows:1)the front-line teachers were the most populartrainers among rural English teachers in Eastern Yunnan province,followed by university teachers;2)the most popular training methods by the teachers are case studies and masters’ demonstrations;3)comprehensive evaluation was the most effective assessment method for rural secondary school English teachers in the region;4)winter and summer holidays were the most popular training time;5)the university campus was their favourite training place,followed by the inner-city schools;6)In terms of training contents,training on their basic professional knowledge and teaching skills as well as training on how to educate the left-behind children and transform problem students are urgently needed;7)There were differences in teachers training needs for the teachers’ education background,gender,age structures were different.Four suggestions in terms of improving the training quality of rural English teachers were proposed as follows: Firstly,rural-English-teacher-centered training programs should be given enough emphasis and be localized in accordance with the local schools.Secondly,the threshold for trainers should be raised and attention should be paid to train full-time trainers for rural secondary English teachers.Thirdly,the training methods should be innovated to improve training effectiveness.Fourthly,the rural secondary schools should establish a transformation mechanism to help transform what the rural English teachers have learned into their teaching practice.