Teacher Cognition Of Language Teacher Development In Secondary Schools

Although teacher development has been a familiar notion in the ELT profession for the last few decades, it is relatively new and has received insufficient attention in China, especially in secondary schools in border areas. With the application of cognitive psychology on the research of teachers, teachers' cognitive research has become a new kind of research model. However, the related research on language teachers in secondary schools is relatively poor. As a result, this thesis is based on this situation, trying to explore the relation between teachers' cognition and teacher development.This study is based on 60 English teachers who have been teaching English in Longling County, Baoshan Prefecture. Many of them are teaching in senior high schools, while some are teaching in junior high schools, and the others are in Normal School or Vocational School.First, this research explores the knowledge source through a piece of questionnaire, which focuses on their growing process, and where they get their teaching knowledge. To put it briefly, this study is trying to answer the following two questions: 1).What is the teacher cognition of language teacher development in secondary schools? 2). What efficient approaches are they employing to develop their professional knowledge? After answering the questionnaire, there are six teachers chosen to be interviewed. So the materials and data are obtained through questionnaire, interview and narrative inquiry. What the present research found is that different teachers have different sources. Some value "teaching experience and reflection", some refer to "communicating with peers or colleagues", but others depend on "reading academic journals".Second, because teachers in secondary schools, especially in border areas, are obsessed by a heavy teaching load, the heavy teaching load has to a great extent prevented them from improving themselves. They hardly have any opportunities to develop themselves, so they hold that "peer coaching" is an efficient approach for teacher development, and it is very economic and convenient.Finally, the researcher lists the limitations and suggestions for future research.