A Framework Of In-service English Teacher Development In Guangxi

With the development of education,the concept of teacher preparation has undergone the following changes:from "teacher training" to "teacher education" then to "teacher development". And accordingly the training model has also developed from "the craft model" to "the applied model" and then to "the reflective model". "Teacher training" emphasizes practicing low-inference skills- instead of fostering student teachers' ability in decision-making and problem-solving ability. It is a bottom-up way. In contrast,"teacher education" focuses on the exploration of teachers' thinking ability and the enhancement of theoretical knowledge so as to enable teachers to have a macro understanding of teaching. It is a top-down way that overlooks the complexity and changeableness of teaching and over-emphasizes the authority of theory. As a result,theory and practice are divorced. "Teacher development" aims at student teachers' continuous improvement. Teachers are encouraged to do research and reflect on their teaching so as to build up their own teaching theory.The significance of the present study on in-service English teacher development in Guangxi is triple. First,teachers' quality is the key to the success of English language teaching reform. Teacher preparation plays an important role in improving teachers' quality. The cultivation of students' communicative competence and learner autonomy has often been the focus of English language teaching research,while few people give attention to the development of teachers. Second,while some researches have been done on the pre-service preparation of language teachers,in-service teacher development is neglected,even though in-service English teachers are the mainstay of English teaching in China. Being trained in the traditional way,practicing English teachers will face more challenge when confronting educational reform as a result of the ageing,of their teaching beliefs,knowledge and teaching methodology. To promote the development of English teaching,in-service teacher education should be given more attention. Third,Secondary school is the key period for students to learn English. The effectiveness of English teaching will in a large degree affect students' later development,so more emphasis should be put on the development of Secondary school English teachers.This thesis mainly consists of six parts:the presentation of the research question,literature review,theoretical background,research design,data analysis and implications. The rationale of the present study comes from constructivism,CLT,and reflective teaching. The core belief is that learning is a process that learners actively construct new knowledge upon pre-existing knowledge and experience according to their own needs and interests. In a constructivist approach,a teacher educator should base their teaching on student teachers' practical knowledge and draws on their personal experience to develop their professional teaching ability and communicative ability in a holistic way. He should also guide student teachers to reflect on their teaching and learning in order to develop teacher autonomy.In order to hear the insiders' voices,the present author did a small-scale survey on the teachers who come to Guangxi Normal University for their further study. The main devices are questionnaires and group interview. The main purposes for using questionnaires are 1) tofind out the in-service teachers' existing teaching beliefs,2) to enable them express their frustration in implementing the new syllabus. The results show that many teachers' teaching belief is out of date. Their awareness of self-development is quite weak. Due to the lack of thorough education in CLT,it is fairly difficult for them to implement CLT. Group interviews were conducted to get a deeper understanding of teachers' ideas on the present condition of teacher training programs and their feelings about their current situation. It was found that many teachers are worried and restless about their teaching and anxious to see reform in teacher develo...