Study On Teachers' Professional Learning Community Of Early Childhood Education In The United States

In the increasingly fierce international competition in the twenty-first century,countries have set of fawave of educational reforms.To improve the quality of education is the crucial point in educational reforms,and teachers are the major executors in educational activities,so the teachers' professional development is the decisive factor affecting the quality of education,which is closely related to the success of educational reforms.The systematic ideas,policies and specific measures taken by the USA to improve the quality of teachers have offered important insights for the construction of teaching staff in China and the reform of teachers' education,especially in the effective way for teacher professional development,and actively establishing and improving the professional learning community.After decades of continuous improvement,the development of the professional learning community of early childhood education in the USA tends to mature,and has achieved remarkable results.Based on the research on the history,elements,features and improvement measures of professional learning community of early childhood education in the USA,and combined with China's national conditions,this paper put forward the path of professional development of kindergarten teachers in China.The main contents of this paper are as follows:Introduction,starting from the problems cause,points out that the professional learning community has become an important issue in the reform of teacher education in the world.This paper is based on lots of relevant studies on the professional learning community,and summarized the problems related to the professional learning community and the professional learning community in the USA,including the connotation,characteristics,developmental stages,construction of value and the construction strategies and so on.At the same time,it also makes a literature review on the issues related to the professional development of teachers.In the introduction,the research methods and significance are also clarified.The first chapter is the evolution of the professional learning community of early childhood education in the USA.After defining the concept of teachers'professional learning,teachers' professional learning community and the professional learning community of early childhood education,this paper analyzes the elements of the professional learning community,including shared vision and goals,cooperative culture,collective learning and sharing of individual practice.It also describes the theoretical basis of social constructivist learning theory,learning organization theory and adult learning theory.This study carried out the necessary theoretical basis,in order to better interpret the practical characteristics of professional learning community of early childhood education in the USA.The second chapter is about the historical evolution of the professional learning community of early childhood education teachers in the USA.After the Second World War,in 1970s,professional learning community in the USA has been in the process of teacher professionalization.From 1980s to 2000,the American people are more concerned about the quality of teachers,and learning organization theory was introduced into the edu cation sector,leading to the rise of the professional learning community.After entering the 2000,the rapid development of the professional learning community in the United States has made a lot of achievements in solving the problem of teachers' isolated teaching and streng thening the cooperation and sharing among teachers.The third chapter is about the practical characteristics of professional learning community of early childhood education in the USA.After brewing,the rise and development,professional learning community of Early childhood Education in the USA has shown some characteristics in practice:with shared vision and goals as the core;with cooperative learning as the main form;with the variety of professional development activities as the carrier;with supportive and shared leadership as the conditions,and with assessment tools and data analysis as the weapons.The fourth chapter is about the improvement of the professional learning community of early childhood education in the USA.The professional learning community of early childhood education in the USA has made some achievements,there are still some problems,including the concept of gene ralization leads to ineffective practice;cooperation arrangements lack of rationality and Inadequate sharing of individual practice.In response to the problem,the attempt to improve the process of the professional learning community of early childhood education is also showing a new trend of development,including the establishment of specialized institutions to assist the construction;the strengthening of administrative support;and with the help of new information technology.The fifth chapter,analyzed the professional learning community of early childhood education in the USA for our reference.Based on the survey of management,and evaluation of the activities of preschool teachers' professional learning community,points out the problems:the administrative power concentration;"contrived collegiality" lead to a superficial cooperation;evaluation system needs to be improved,and the reasons were analy zed.Based on the experience of the professional learning comm unity of early childhood education in the USA,we concluded the insights for China:convert preschool teachers' role in management of the professional learning community,and improve the consciousness of service in teachers;construct an equal and free environment for preschool teachers' professional learning community;focus on internal development motivation of preschool teachers;the use of new information technology,open the space for preschool teach ers'professional learning community.