The Ecological Model Study Of Teacher Professional Development

Background：Teachers are the key to improve the quality of education, the soul of a university, themost variable and active factor in the education reform, and the social expectation to thedevelopment of educational cause. The proposal of “teacher professional development” riseteacher from “occupation” to the “professional”. It aims at making the “semi-professional”truly become to the “specialization”, making teachers have professional ideals and moral,professional knowledge and skills and professional autonomy. Teacher professionaldevelopment starts relatively late in China. The literature reports are mainly concentrated onthe normal schools, focus on the primary and secondary school teachers; The training ofteachers still stay in “one-off” stage in military medical university because of its specialmechanism system and environmental characteristics, which means the training mode isbased on the the skills and knowledge deficiencies. Many studies suggest that this kind oftraining mode is unefficient to teacher development. One of the reasons may be that thetraining is focus on improving teachers’ teaching skills, but pay less attention to schoolenvironment. Accordingly, the research on teacher professional development in militarymedical university is not only the realistic demand and urgent need, but also a new startingpoint to explore the road of teacher professional development in universities.Objective：To construct the ecological system of teacher professional development under theguidance of ecology theory and combining the educational ecology and organizationalecology. To explore the factors influencing the teacher professional development in militarymedical university from a broader perspective, construct a ecological model, provide thetheoretical basis for the teacher professional development in colleges and universities, andthe method for the practice of innovative education and the cultivation of innovative talents.Methods：1. Construct the ecological system of teacher professional development throughanalysis of literature, combination of ecology, organizational ecology, educational ecology and the connotation of teacher professional development.2. Interview19experts of different disciplines in military medical university, arrangethe data with the method of grounded theory, obtain the related factors affecting teacherprofessional development and construct a preliminary model.3. Prepare the questionnaire named “Influencing factors of teacher professionaldevelopment in military medical university” containing29items based on the results treatedaccording to the method of grounded theory, and test the reliability and validity.4. Perform random questionnaire survey of three military medical universities in China,construct the model through the exploratory factor analysis, and verify the model throughthe confirmatory factor analysis.Results：1. The ecological system of teacher professional development had the characteristics ofcomplexity, dynamic and stability, complicated structure and internal relationship. Itsoperating mechanism involved competition and cooperation, learning and communication,practice and innovation. It constructed the “Egg-like” ecological system structure ofeducation, made clear the specific contents of teacher professional development, andre-positioned the role of teacher in the education ecological system.2. Obtained78conceptions and17categories by adopting the method of groundedtheory,and three canonical models including “management orientation”,“self-development”and “team supporting” were constructed further, which constructed ecological model ofmilitary medical university initially.3. Prepared the questionnaire named “Influencing factors of teacher professionaldevelopment in military medical university” containing29items, such as School Leadership、Orientation of running a school、Policy orientation、Unconditional support、EvaluationMechanism、Individual demand、Achievement aspiration、Self consciousness、Core Values、Professional Virtue、Professional Knowledge、Ability of thinking、Ability to research、Abilityin expression、Clinical competence、Educational knowledge、Teaching skills、Teaching practice、Development effect、Department culture、Subject characteristics、Teacher leadership、Relationship among teachers、Teacher-student relationship、Teaching management relationship、Development goals、Environment of competition、Reform and innovation and Continuouslearning. 4. The items was analyzed in the questionnaire named “Influencing factors of teacherprofessional development in military medical university”,and there was significantdifference of mean between the higher score and the lower score(P<0.05),which indicatedthat the29items having high discriminability, reliability and validity,should to beexploratory factor analyzed further.5. After twice exploratory factor analysis with SPSS13.0,5factors including practice,innovation, learning,support and responsibility were extracted, a PISSR ecological model ofteacher professional development in military medical university which including28items,5public factors were constructed.6. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed using LISREL8.70statistical software, thevalues of model M2fit index RMSEA, RMR, NFI, NNFI, CFI were respectively0.100、0.081、0.90、0.92、0.93,the values of model M1fit index RMSEA, RMR, NFI, NNFI, CFI wererespectively0.15,0.11,0.84,0.86,0.87. It indicated that the PISSR ecological model M2ofteacher professional development in military medical university had better data fitting.7. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire show: the Cronbach’a value of thequestionnaire is0.954, the Split-half value is0.862; the Cronbach’a values of all the factorsare between0.849and0.890, the Split-half values are between0.757and0.863, whichindicated that the overall reliability of the questionnaire and the factor structure reliability isacceptable. The value of KMO sample adaptive test is0.919, the chi-square value ofBartlett’s sphericity test is2902.765, with statistically significant differences(P=0.000<0.001). In the correlation analysis of the questionnaire, the correlation coefficientbetween the5public factors ranged from0.30to1, consistented with the related propertydefining of the factor analysis variables.8. Under the guidance of the PISSR ecological model, we proposed the reconstructionstrategy of the ecological system of teacher professional development in military medicaluniversity from the two aspects of the management and teacher themselves. There shouldset up special institutions of teacher professional development at the management level,develop professional development program for teachers, follow the implementation of theprinciple of the development plan, develop people-oriented evaluation system, establish acorresponding platform for teachers’ development and create a campus full of reform andinnovation. Teachers should master educational knowledge and teaching skills, participate and improve the teaching practice, update clinical knowledge, actively respond to thecompetitive environment, carry out teaching reform and innovation, strengthen scientificresearch, build a harmonious department atmosphere, contribute to the school educationpolicy, be good at using the evaluation system, construct a pleasure and harmonious campus,constantly improve their knowledge, language and thought, contribute to the teacherprofessional development, establish a correct outlook on life and values and strengthenprofessional morality.Conclusions：1. The ecological system of teacher professional development emphasizes the harmonyand concomitance between the teachers and the whole environment. It is a constructivemodel for researching the teacher professional development in colleges and universities.2. The teacher professional development in military medical university is not onlyrelated with the individual teacher, but also affected by the internal environment inuniversity.3. The PISSR ecological model of military medical university basically covers theinfluencing factors of the ecological system of teacher professional development. It is animportant guidance for teacher professional development in university.4. Practice, innovation, responsibility, study and support are a unified organism. Onlyconsider comprehensively, arrange co-ordinately and improve the contents from5factorscan we achieve the expected goal of teacher professional development.Innovation points:1. Constructed the ecological system of teacher professional development;2. First selected the military medical university as the investigative object of teachersprofessional development;3. Successfully established a PISSR ecological model of teacher professional developmentin military medical university;4. Put forward the reconstructed strategy of the ecological system of teacher professionaldevelopment in military medical university from two aspects of the organization and theteacher.