Research On The Construction Mechanisms Of Middle School Teachers' Professional Community

Professional community is a new paradigm of teachers' professional development,as well as a new approach to the overall reform and development of schools.Building professional communities of middle school teachers answers the call of educational reforms in the new era,meets the realistic demand of schools' overall development,and satisfies the inner demand of individual teachers' professional growth.Taking a middle school in Shanghai(referred to has “School J” hereafter)as an example,this study carries out an action research in over a decade' s practice of teacher development,exploring the construction of middle school teachers' professional community,in terms of key elements that make an effective professional community as well as the construction mechanisms and approaches.The study employs a variety of research methods including literature review and analysis,questionnaire and interview investigations,participation observation,case study,etc.First of all,with the help of relevant documents,the paper analyzes the current situation of the construction of the professional community of middle school teachers in our country,and summarizes the main problems and difficulties faced.On this basis,the paper narrates the practical process of building a professional community of middle school teachers in individual cases from a historical perspective: a)the sprouting stage,which aimed to evoke the teachers' awareness and motivation of professional development through inquiry courses,special training and other activities;b)the establishing period,during which various tasks were used to drive teaming building and transform loosely organizated teacher development teams to a professional community with a strong organizational culture;c)the developing period,when faced with new challenges like the integration of information technology and education,the regionalization and collectivation of schools,a new attempt was made to promote teacher professional development in smart classroom practices and inter-school exchanges.Based on the practice of case schools,the paper discusses the multiple mechanisms for the growth and sustainable development of the middle school teachers' professional community,including: a)four incubation mechanisms,i.e.goals orientation,motivation,task-driven practice,and expert leadership;b)three operation mechanisms,i.e.continuous improvement,incentive policy,and cultural guidance;c)three evaluation mechanisms,i.e.process evaluation,performance evaluation and team evaluation;d)two guarantee mechanisms,i.e.organizational structure and organizational institutions.The paper also analyzes five core elements of a professional community,namely,common values and vision;community leadership;mutual aid and cooperation in practice;space,time and platform for communication and sharing;identity and sense of belonging.In the end,the paper puts forward five ways to construct the professional community of middle school teachers: a)building a community vision based on needs analysis;b)arranging proper amounts of professional development activities while emphasizing effectiveness of the activities;c)providing all-round and multi-level expert guidance;d)creating extensive and sufficient opportunities for peer exchanges;e)strengthening cummunity culture and material support.The practical exploration of this article has reference significance for similar middle schools in their constructions of teacher professional community.In addition,the theoretical discussions based on practices of School J as well as the investigation data contribute to the existing knowledge base concerning teacher professional community.