Professional Development Program For In-service English Teachers Of Middle Schools: A Tentative Construct

With the implementation of the New English Curriculum Criterion, the promotion of new teaching materials and the new teaching methods, English teachers of middle schools are in face of great challenges. English teacher development is becoming a cause for great concern in China.The New English Curriculum Criterion pays much more attention to the development of students under the background of basic education reform. So, English teachers should stand higher and learn to improve themselves through correspondent professional development program.This thesis aims at the research of in-service English teachers in middle schools and mainly consists of five parts: introduction, literature review, case study and research findings, a tentative construct of the program and conclusion.The key concept of teacher development has developed from the following changes: from "teacher training" to "teacher education" then to "teacher development". And accordingly "teacher training " emphasizes practicing low-inference skills instead of fostering teachers' ability in decision-making and problem-solving ability; "teacher education" focuses on the exploration of teachers' thinking ability and enhancement of theoretical knowledge, overlooking the complexity and changeableness of teaching context; however, "teacher development " aims at teachers' continuous improvement, and teachers are encouraged to do research and reflect on their teaching so as to build up their own teaching theory.Since the research of teacher professional development has just started in China and we still haven't obtained enough experience on this point, this...