An Exploratory Research On The Conceptual Model Of University English Teacher Development

In the social constructivism theory, English teacher is crucial in determining the effectiveness of English teaching and English teaching reform. Therefore, English teacher development has become a hot topic in the academic world. With the harmonious interactions between the internal and external motives in the various eco-environments, the ideal realm for university English teachers is to be humane teachers. And teacher development, aiming to discover the greatest potentials of teachers in their career and life existences, has hypothesized close relationships with their environmental surroundings in the ecological approach.This research adopts some principles and rules in the educational ecology to explore university English teacher development in combination with the existing ecological environment. With reference to the faculty development model put forward by Bergquist and Phillips, this research advances the conceptual model of university English teacher development, aiming at achieving the optimum harmony between the subjects and their correlative eco-environments through the appropriate constructive means and methods from a macro perspective. With the empirical research through the two questionnaires, there is the utilization of the four layers in the conceptual model. Derived from the personal, collective, institutional and meta-institutional layers, information around personal characteristics, collective cooperation, institutional eco-environment, academic eco-environment, educational eco-environment and social eco-environment is obtained to carry out data analysis with four research questions.The research explores the above four layers mainly through six concerned aspects, with the ecological views of entirety, system, balance and harmonious values into consideration. Meanwhile, this research targets at digging out more potential for proper construction of the most suitable eco-environments, including the mental, academic, institutional, material, educational and cultural ones.Viewing from four layers and six kinds of eco-environments to construct the favorable ecological environment, the research carries out further probations, to offer the following development suggestions or enlightenments. To begin with, the perfection of mental eco-environments has to be considered both personally and collectively, with right self-attribution and immediate reflection to perform the greatest potentials of subjectivity. Then, the institutional layer needs to highlight the human's subject status through summative and formative management mechanisms, encourage teacher empowerment with humanized and differential considerations. Furthermore, the meta-institutional layer ensures the healthy academic and cultural atmosphere, boosts university English teachers'social status and reputation, guarantees implementations of college English reform, and perfects the social support systems. After all, university English teacher development is a dynamic and complex project, requiring the joint efforts of personal, collective, institutional, educational and social influencers to achieve the comprehensive and coordinative planning and construction.