A Study On Career-Development-Oriented Curriculum Arrangements For Teacher Education

Reform of educational system, teaching staff management, and professionalism of teaching and teachers’professional development make it necessary and urgent to think over the question of course offerings for teacher education. After having investigated and analyzed teachers" vocational development. we make it clear that course offerings for teacher education are significant to teachers’vocational development.Based on theories of vocational development, we have discussed vocational literacy structures for teachers’ full development. Based on theories of teacher development, we have discussed practical foundation for teachers’whole-process development. We have, therefore, put forth an idea of teachers’full and whole-process development in vocation. We went to with discussions about goals, structures and contents system of teacher education, focusing on the full and whole-process development from the perspectives of curriculum goals, structures and contents, trying to construct a "four-in-one" content system for teacher education.Gaps exist in overall vocational development for pre-and in-service primary and secondary teachers. Key factors determining teachers’vocational development are goccational literacy, educational policies and educational environments, with the first factor influencing the strongest. It’s important to reform mechanisms of teacher development and improve social support system to improve teacehrs’vocational development.Teachers’vocational literacy and educational policies are the most influential for pre-and in-service teachers to judge and deal with vocational pressures. Academic degress, professional titles and length of service, as indicators of teachers’ vocational development, are closely related to teacehrs’pedagogic knowledge and skills, subject knowledge and skills, affection and attitudes to teaching, which are key components of teachers’vocational literacy as a key factor influencing teachers’ vocational development.Teachers hold different evaluations for teacher education courses, which is instructive to discussions of reform of curriculum structures and contents for teacher education. Most pre-service and in-service teachers for primary and secondary schools admit the values of pre-service courses, while pre-service teachers values them much lower than in-service teachers do. Obvious differences of value assessment for different types of courses appear between pre-service and in-service teachers. In-service teachers value courses of educational practice the most, and courses of subject skills, subject knowledge, pedagogica knowledge the next, and courses of general knowledge the least. Pre-service teachers value courses of subject skills the most, and courses of subject knowledge, pedagogica knowledge and educational practice the next, and courses of general knowledge the least. In-service teachers pay more attention to educational and teaching abilities, while pre-service teacher to subject abilities. Under-evaluation of courses of general knowledge implies the necessity of reforming English teacher education courses.Theories of vocational development and teacher development lay theoretical foundations to discussions of teacher education curriculum settings. A view of full and whole-process development in vocation is benefitial to clarifying goals, structures and contents of teacher education. To obtain a full development, teachers should develop a "four-in-one" literacy structure of vocational knowledge, vocational skills, vocational views and virtues, and vocational interests and tendencies. To obtain a whole-process development, teachers should develop an idea of life-long education and life-long learning. Teachers’ full and whole-process development urges teacher education institutions to make curriculum goals and structures consistent, continous and developmental while designing teacher education curriculum, and establishing a "four-in-one" content system to ensure teachers’full development. Designs and offerings of teacher education should follow ideals of cultivation orientation, praxis orientation, and life-long learning, and principles of appropriateness, openness, developmentalness and systematicalness.Teachers’ vocational literacy develops and is developed in the course of receiving pre-and in-service teacher education, influenced by teacher education courses. Offerings of courses for teacher education should follow general goals of national educational development, and work together with standards for subjects and teachers, and standards for teacher education, and take teachers’developmental needs into considerations. Arrangements of courses should be consistent and continous in structures. be graded, progressive and developmental in contents. With teachers’full and whole-process development as the ultimate goals, it is an innovative work to clarify objectives and structures, and construct a "four-in-one" content system.Vocational notions are an element of professionalism and an ideological foundation to teachers. Teachers must change their ideas in accordance to developments in society, economy, culture and education. They need to develop views of quality-improvement and life-long education, teacher development and student-centeredness. Teachers’vocational notions form and develop in the course of being educated, and are influenced by courses offered for teacher education. Scientific, reasonable, and systematic course offerings for teacher education provide a solid,, foundation to healthful and scientific vocational notions. Effective implementation of teacher education courses will promote healthy development of teachers’vocational notions.It is necessary to modify the ratio of curriculum structure and enrich courses related to vocational notions. It is also important to play hidden curriculum’s roles in developing teachers’ vocational notions and virtues.Vocational knowledge is an element of professionalism and a knowledge. foundation for primary and secondary teachers’development. Teachers’ vocational-knowledge consist of general knowledge (cultural knowledge), pedagogic knowledge (including PCK), subject matter knowledge, and knowledge about vocational interests and tendencies. Imbanances in knowledge structure are common among pre-and in-service teachers, which hinder teachers’vocational development.Pre-service English teachers show specially high attention to subject matter knowledge while fewer attention to PCK and general knowledge. They are in extreme need of practical knowledge. In-service teachers have turned out to be insufficient in knowledge about vocational planning and development, instruction, development and application of curriculum resources, and instructional designs. Characteristics of and differences between pre-service and in-service teachers’knowledge structures provide valuable references for course offerings. Ratios of classtime allocation and amounts of subjects for different curriculum clusters sbould be adjusted; the content structure of some curriculum clusters should be modified to stress practical courses; the ratios of compulsory and elective subjects should be reset to offer more elective courses.Vocational skills are the core of professionalism and a skill foundation for primary and secondary teachers’ development. Teachers’ vocational skills develop in the course of being educated and engaging in educational and instructional practices, and are influenced by course offerings for teacher education. Vocational skills include skills of education and instruction, management, communication and cooperation. Imbanances in structures of vocational skills exist among pre-service and in-service teachers in primary and secondary schools. Structures of vocational skills vary individually and need to be improved and developed. Pre-service and in-service teachers value significances of abilities of conducting teaching and practice to teacher development. Pre-service teachers speak highly of abilities of instructional design, and classroom and student management. Pre-service and in-service teachers haven’t paid enough attention to abilities of development and application of curriculum resourses and instructional researches. To further develop pre-service and in-service teachers’vocational skills, it is necessary to reform course offerings for teachers in primary and secondary schools, and organize them to participate in educational action researches, and reform the mechanism of developing teachers.Vocational aptitude is also an important element of professionalism, and it exerts influences upon teachers’vocational adaptability and vocational development in primary and secondary schools. Vocational aptitude include understandings about values of teaching, interest in teaching, and tendency of choosing teaching as a career. It is very important to know and understand pre-service and in-service teachers’ vocational aptitudes for course offerings in teacher education institutions and for selection of teachers by local educational departments or schools. Pre-service and in-service teachers hold different understandings about the values of teaching and teacher profession, and correspondingly show different interest and tendency. Courses should be offered for pre-service and in-service teachers to know and understand their vocational aptitudes, and services and helps of assessing and evaluating vocational aptitudes should also be handy when they are in need by some pre-service and in-service teachers.Values of this study rely on enriching and extending scopes and contents of theoretical discussions on course offerings for teacher education. The idea of teachers’ full and whole-process development,"four-in-one" vocational literacy structure, and "four-in-one" content system add to present theoretical discussions about vocational development and curriculum setting for teacher education. This study offers a practical trial for the integration of pre-and in-service teacher education advocated by many scholars and researchers. It is also a trial of arranging courses according to educational goals and curriculum objectives. The "four-in-one" vocational literacy structure and curriculum content system provide further references to teacher education curriculum arrangement and its reform.This study combines discussions about curriculum arrangements for teacher education with those about teachers’ vocational development. The ideas of full and whole-process development of teachers’vocation, and descriptions of "four-in-one" vocational literacy structures and content system have enriched and extended theoretical and practical results of related studies.