For Information Technology Teacher Professional Development Research

The role of the teachers is critical in the process of educational informatization, in which the ultimate goal is integrating ICT into the curriculum successfully, striving for educational innovations with suppon: of ICT, and making transforms in teaching methods through integrating ICT into pedagogy, all of theses changes will be manifested in the teachers' professional performance. Meeting these challenges, teachers must adjust or even change their teaching behavior promptly. Therefore, teachers have to develop a new set of professional capabilities to fit the needs demanded by the ICT-integrated pedagogical practice. In this dissertation, the research was concentered on the new requirements for the teachers' professional development in the ICT integration endeavor, which consists of five parts. In the first part, the new requirements for teachers capacities in the ICT integrated pedagogy was analyzed, and the standards for teachers technology integration pedagogy was framed, which was resulted from a contracted project with UNESCO-APEID, and will be used as guidelines for teacher training in technology-pedagogy integration in Asia-Pacific region. The standards were also used as the foundation for designing teachers professional development program in this research.In the second part, the research was focused on the methods and strategies for teachers' professional development. Other than the analysis of the deficiency of traditional teacher training method, the factors blocking down the application of ICT in teaching was investigated through questionnaire and interviews, which will also be taken into considerations in the design of teachers professional development program.In the third part, the action learning as an approach to teacher learning was presented, which was based on a solid study of literatures. Based on the action learning framework and keep the technology-pedagogy integration standards in mind, a teachers' professional development program for the technology-pedagogy integration named Action Learning (AL), which was designed by the author and her team and is trying out, was presented in general, some features of it were also elaborated.In the forth part, a platform supporting the action learning process in the AL program was presented, in which the network information resources and communication tools were integrated. In this platform, the action learning activities was supported in the process of action, reflection, planning and refining; more importantly, the learner communities were sustained and expanded in the platform.The training materials of AL program have been completed after development and revision during last year, and the pilot program is undergoing in Shanghai from Oct. 2003, which was tested in use with a group of K12 teachers. At the last, the effect of the try out of the program so far was concluded, and the process was reviewed and some results were assessed.