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Beginning Language Narrative Research Junior Teachers' Professional Development

Posted on:2014-05-16Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:L LiFull Text:PDF
GTID:1267330425488632Subject:Curriculum and pedagogy
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Beginning teachers are at the initial stage of professional growth. This is a stage in which teachers are easiest to be shaped in the career development, and also "the internal critical period" of their professional growth. The professional growth of teachers in the beginning stage will have profound influence on the quality of the professional development throughout their career. Therefore, many countries are concerned about the professional development of beginning teachers, and attach importance to training and instructing beginning teachers. Nowadays, in the midst of constant advancement and deepening of China’s curriculum reform in basic education, teachers are one of the key factors that are decisive in the effect of reform. At present, Chinese teaching is confronted with all sorts of criticism. As the undertaker, Chinese teachers, especially beginning ones, have lofty mission and heavy responsibility, shouldering dual pressures from the reform and development of teaching as well as from self growth. Therefore, it appears imperative to make research into the professional growth of junior high beginning Chinese teachers.On the basis of learning and drawing on the existing research results, this research focuses on exploring the professional growth of junior high beginning teachers in the real situation by way of educational narrative research, a method whereby the researcher listens attentively to and ponders over stories and seeks to present the true meaning and value of teacher development from the practical perspective in the way of interpretative understanding.In this research, a one-year cooperative educational narrative research was first made on three junior high beginning Chinese teachers from three schools, with three of them having0-1year,1-2years,2-3years of experience in their initial growth respectively. The research was focused on initial growth of the cooperative teachers. Stories about each teacher’s experience in the initial growth period were narrated according to the time sequence of their professional growth. In addition, the influence that these stories had on them was shown and reflections and analyses in this regard were also made. In the one-year educational narrative research, it is found that with the increase of time of teaching practice in Chinese education, all three beginning Chinese teachers have smoothly passed the adaptation period after joining in work, acquiring professional growth to some extent. Due to the differences in the subjective and objective conditions of the three teachers, and different key events they have encountered in the initial growth stage, there appear certain differences with regard to the specific circumstances of their professional growth. In this research,27stories about growth were presented in the way of showing, and rational reflections on these stories were made in the way of telling. Different stories will naturally bring about different perceptions. All the three teachers in this paper are independent individuals, each of whose growth process is, though not transferable or reproducible, but undoubtedly worthy of being explored and pondered on. These stories can set the readers thinking and arouse their sympathetic chord; in turn, the reader’s participation and interpretation will reveal more enlightenment from the stories.Secondly, this research from the narrative perspective is also, based on the narrative research on these three teachers, focused on a group made up of individual junior high beginning Chinese teachers, expecting to find out the common problems and resolutions in the professional growth of beginning Chinese teachers. For this purpose, a group of junior high beginning teachers and a group of their instructors were interviewed in this research from four dimensions of professional development on an expanded scope of listening and exploration. On one hand, on basis of the narrations many junior high beginning Chinese teachers made about their own growth experience, it is expected to find out the problems and puzzles and growth needs they have in reality, and learn about the way how the school provides related supports and to what extent the supports are effective. On the other hand, on basis of the comments the instructors made on their experience, it is expected to realize how they feel and what problems are found in their instructions, and listen to their opinions and suggestions on professional growth of beginning Chinese teachers. The research indicates that the current key point in professional growth of junior high beginning Chinese teachers is:in terms of professional consciousness, professional identity consciousness of beginning Chinese teachers should be strengthened with a view to cultivating their consciousness on professional development; in terms of professional idea, the objective uncertainties in their professional ideal should be aware of, so as to make the idea they use get closer to the one they believe in; in terms of professional knowledge, the internal structure of their professional knowledge should be optimized to constantly enrich their practical knowledge; and in terms of professional ability, attention should be paid to the cultivation of their ability to teach Chinese, and to the improvement of their research ability.Thirdly, in this research, reflections and analyses are to be made on the basis of educational narrations. The professional growth of junior high Chinese teachers should be regarded as a continuous dynamic process. And with their commencement of service as the division point, their pre-service cultivation is to be pondered on and their in-service growth to be surveyed.In the pre-service growth stage, firstly, attention should be paid to the normal university students’desire to grow and to the formation of the sense of happiness in their pre-service growth; secondly, normal university students should be given the impetus for their growth, with focus on the formation of their ability to grow; thirdly, their knowledge structure should be improved, with focus on the formation of practical knowledge; and fourthly, the quality of their practical activities should be improved, with focus on the generation of their reflective ability. With these trainings which aim at awakening their professional consciousness, enriching their professional knowledge and enhancing their professional capacity, a solid foundation can be laid for their future professional growth.Today, junior high beginning Chinese teachers have to face the dual pressures from life and work. Firstly, in their professional growth stage, they should actively make plans for their professional growth. Construction of electronic portfolio is helpful to awake their professional consciousness, enabling them learn how to plan their careers, and transforming passive adaptation into active growth, thereby their professional growth will be led into a positive developing path which is purposeful, systematic and sustainable. Secondly, in view of the characteristics of the course of Chinese, junior high beginning Chinese teachers have both subjective and objective conditions of engaging in educational narrative researches, and may consciously learn how to carry out educational narrative researches in the initial period of their careers so as to improve their research consciousness and research ability. Thirdly, it is the inevitable prerequisite for their professional growth to focus on the Chinese classroom teaching, and strengthen and improve their ability to teach Chinese. Fourthly, efforts should be made to provide effective support, improve and update the internal instructor system, develop and promote external instructor resources, and to build multiple instructing systems for the professional growth of junior high beginning Chinese teachers, which is conducive to providing more help for their growth.As an educational narrative research, this research has no intention to explore any universal structurized theory; instead it focuses on obtaining inspiration and experience from the stories to seek the situational educational significance. Therefore, in this research, for purpose of learning more about junior high beginning Chinese teachers, we listened to them narrating educational stories from their own experience. And on the basis of this, some reflections are made on their pre-service training and in-service growth. These reflections are focused on elaborations on the specific points rather than generalizations on the whole framework, obtaining reflections and experience from the stories. It is expected that certain space will be left behind for the readers to make theoretical thinking. Meanwhile, the readers are encouraged to think while reading the stories, so as to obtain more abundant interpretations on meaning.
Keywords/Search Tags:junior high beginning Chinese teacher, professional growth, narrativeresearch, pre-service training, in-service growth
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