Research On The Teaching Ability Of Teacher Educators

Who are teacher educators?They are teachers' teachers.What are their responsibilities?To train teachers.Teacher educators train teachers for the future education,and take an important position in the educational ecosystem.Teacher educators as practitioners of teacher education are important human resources.This is because irrespective of how advanced an idea is and how improved a curriculum may be,they are subject to the delivery and implementation of teacher educators.Therefore,in current times when the specialized development and quality enhancement of teacher education are emphasized,teacher educators' own professional quality,in particular their teaching competency,which can have the most direct impact on teaching effectiveness,has become an issue that researchers must attach importancce to.Teacher educators are special teachers.They are not only teachers with common attributes and characteristics of teachers in general,but also the teacher of teachers whose ontological and conditional knowledge have more intersections.In addition,to some degree their professional identity has the same character as the future occupational identity of their students.Teacher educators' teaching behavior in itself has multiple traits of teachers' profession,such as guidance,demonstration,etc.Their teaching not only guides learner's "learning",but also teaches learners "how to teach".Meanwhile,it is inevitable that they need to demonstrate "teaching" through their own teaching practice.These are the particularities of the teaching role of teacher educators',which,therefore,determines that their teaching competencies are a complex set of abilities,and the integration of the teaching competences concerning both "how to teach" and "how to learn".Teacher educators are expected to have the most direct impact on teacher learners,and provide them with the clearest demonstration as well as the guidance that is most likely to be needed.This means that teacher educators should have teaching competencies that are more comprehensive and of higher levels than teachers in general so as to respond to the new requirements of teacher training in the 21 st century.The study hence focuses on teacher educators and their teaching competencies.Given that teacher educators are in fact a complex group,the teacher educators in this study,due to the limited conditions and research interests,are defined as professional teachers who are engaged in teaching the courses related to teacher education offered by institutions of higher learning or normal universities.In the West,they are called"Teacher Educators based in Normal Universities".So what kind of teaching competencies should teacher educators have?What are the distinctive constituents of their teaching competencies?What is the real state of teacher educators' teaching competencies under the background of professional development in teacher education?Do any problems and drawbacks exist?What are the effect factors and how can sustainable and self-directed development be achieved?These are the questions that this study attempts to answer.The study is one of the few that systematically investigate teacher educators'teaching competencies in China.The previous studies mainly concentrated on the introduction of international research results and the macro theoretical analysis rather than the enquiry of a specific question,while this project went beyond these and made an in-depth localized exploration of teacher educators' teaching competencies.Using Delphi method and combining quantitative research with qualitative research,the study carried out an ideal analysis of the constituent factors under the practical demands,making factor analysis more reasonable.The model of competence constructed in the study can facilitate the understanding of the structure and specificity of teacher educators' teaching competencies.It also enables teacher educators to analyze the weaknesses in their teaching ability and strengthen their self-awareness of competence,thereby promoting their professional development.In addition,effect factors analysis helps administrators and teacher educators take responsive measures to effectively improve teacher educators' teaching competencies and cope with the needs for quality improvement in teacher education.Therefore,not only did this study explore the theory,but it also has a practical significance and value.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter I presents the research rationale and design-reflecting on the teaching competencies of teacher educators.Questions are raised based on the reality and the existing research literature is reviewed.Meanwhile the core concepts and theoretical framework are established,and the overall design of the study is presented.Chapter ? explores the factors and connections—deconstructing teacher educators' teaching competencies.Based on literature and interviews,this chapter deconstructs the basic elements of teaching competencies of teacher educators.By adopting Delphi's expert consultation,the expert groups evaluate,analyze and revise the rationality and importance of constituentelements of the deconstructed teaching competencies on many occasions.When experts'opinions relatively converge,the constituent factors of teacher educators' teaching competencies are identified and a preliminary model is formed.Chapter III is on systems and interpretation-constructing the model of teacher educators' teaching competencies.Through confirmatory factor analysis,the rationality of the constructed model is verified.The results,show that the model structure is reliable and its dimensions are effective.Eventually the model framework is established,and its interpretation and analyses are carried out.Chapter ? discusses current situations and problems—examining teacher educators' teaching competencies in reality.According to the established model,the reality of teacher educators' teaching competencies is examined and the existent problems are studied by using a questionnaire created by the researcher.Chapter V suggests the attribution and countermeasures—exploring the directions for the development of teacher educators' teaching competencies.The effect factors of teacher educators' teaching competencies are investigated through exploratory factor analysis,and integrating with the earlier research outcome,this chapter attempts to put forward the basic strategies to improve the teaching competencies of teacher educators.The results of this research are as follows:The teacher educators' teaching competency model is a composite model that consists of three first level indexes and nine second level indexes and 36 third level indexes.On the medium level,teacher educators' teaching competency is a constant development continuum from low level to high level.It takes the core competence as structural support and has a parallel double helix structure with the characteristics of evident interactivity and admixture.At present,the overall level of teacher educators' teaching competency is still inadequate.Teacher educators have shortcomings and insufficiency in the structure,perception,performance and development of their competences as well as other aspects.There exist significant differences of varying degrees in the overall evaluation scores of teaching competency between teacher educators of different teaching history,titles,degrees,professional types and professional attributes of the first degree.A horizontal comparison made from the perspective of the users demonstrates that teacher learners are not satisfied with the teaching competency of teacher educators in their practical teaching.Both novice teacher group and teacher learners group express strong demands and high expectations for the role and responsibility as well as the teaching competency of teacher educators.Cooperation and community,management evaluation,training organization and individual factors are the main factors that affect teacher educators' teaching competency.The level of teacher educators' teaching competence can be well predicted on these factors.Based on the above,this study has suggested the strategies for enhancing teacher educators' teaching competency.They are:perfecting a pertinent evaluation mechanism,establishing reasonable and well-organized teaching training,setting up the institutions responsible for teaching assistance and development,building a development community joined by various parties,removing the obstacles on the connection channel with basic education,and enhancing the subject consciousness and the understanding of user's needs.