A Study Of College English Teachers' Beliefs And Their Professional Development

Research on teachers'beliefs has been an important part in western educational research,but it has just started in China. Empirical study in China mainly focuses on the relationshipbetween teachers'beliefs and teachers'classroom practice. This research aims to investigatecollege EFL teachers'beliefs in relation to their professional development which is anotherimportant area in the research of teachers'beliefs abroad.The research is designed on the basis of teachers'beliefs theory and teachers'professional development theory. According to Fessler (1985) and Huberman's (1993)classification of teacher's career stage, subjects of this research are divided first into 5 groupsbased on their teaching years. Group one includes teachers with 1-6 years of teaching, grouptwo 7-12 years of teaching, group three 13-18 years of teaching, group four 19-25 years, andgroup five 26-31 years of teaching.This research employs quantitative methods including questionnaire and statisticalanalysis. There are mainly three parts in the questionnaire. The first part is the backgroundinformation of the subjects which consists of their gender, age, teaching years, academicdegree, graduation school and professional title. The second part is Teachers'BeliefsInventory which is originally designed by Tai Wan scholars, Zhu and Ye (2001). Theinventory is divided into four dimensions: teachers'beliefs in student management,curriculum, assessment and student learning. The third part is Teachers'Job SatisfactionInventory which is adopted from Lv (2004). This inventory tests teachers'satisfaction degreein teaching, work environment, promotion, income, and school management.This study investigates pedagogical beliefs of 101 college EFL teachers from fouruniversities in Changchun City. Data of these teachers'beliefs in student management,curriculum, assessment, and student learning and teachers'feelings about the situation of theirwork are analyzed by SPSS (17.0). Results show differences do exist in college EFL teachers'beliefs between teachers'of different teaching years. Teachers with 1-6 years of teaching havemore open-minded and student-centered beliefs in curriculum, assessment and studentlearning. Teachers of 7-12 and 13-18 years of teaching become less open-minded than thoseof 1-6 years of teaching in their beliefs of student management and student learning. Teachersof 19-25 years of teaching are more conventional than those of 1-18 years of teaching in theirbeliefs of curriculum and assessment. Teachers of 26-31 years of teaching seem to be the mostconservative in their beliefs of curriculum, assessment and student learning.The investigation of teachers'job satisfaction also shows difference between the fivegroups. Teachers'job satisfaction experiences a downward trend from 1-6 years of teaching to 7-12 years of teaching, then a little upward to 13-18 years of teaching, then a straightdownward trend to 19-25 years of teaching, and at last, a dramatic upward trend to 26-31years of teaching.Then, according to the characteristics of each career stage and the comparison ofteachers'beliefs and teachers'job satisfaction between teachers of different teaching years,the contemporary college English teachers'career stages are classified into four stages.Teachers of 1-6 years of teaching are experiencing the induction stage. Teachers of 7-18 yearsof teaching are in the stage of experimentation. Teachers of 19-25 years of teaching haveentered the stage of serenity and teachers of 26-31 years of teaching, the conservation stage.At last, suggestions are given about strategies for college English teachers'professionaldevelopment.