Study Of Teachers' Professional Development, National Standards

Since the mid-20th century, human life has witnessed great changes due to the new revolution in science and technology, which imposed not only new requirements on the quality of coming generations but also new challenges on teachers梠nes who assume the responsibility for preparing good members for future society. Therefore, how to prepare and maintain competent classroom teachers becomes an imperative issue each society has to manage. Though the effects American national standards of teacher's professional development (TPD) have on the quality and performance of its classroom teachers are still not all that sure and need to be tested in classroom practice, these standards, as an initial part of human civilizations, nonetheless make great reference to China's efforts to construct TPD standards.American national TPD standards are the products of a myriad of interplaying factors, like, to name a few, educational academe's intention to improve the status of teaching as a profession (i.e. academic politics), the conflicts between the tradition of economic perspective in education and the crisis in the P-12 education, theoretical exploration in TPD, and governmental purge. Pushed by these factors, American national TPD standards have since 1980's experienced three rough phrases, preparation, formation and systemization, each of which varies in its mission and products.US public agency at all levels contributes to the construction of national TPD standards and has publicized a series of standards in the form of quasi-legal texts. These acts include National Standards of Professional Development Schools, Inter-state Standards of Beginning Teachers, National Standards of Accomplished Professional Teachers, and National Standards for the Accreditation of Teacher Education Institutions. Not only are these standards featured with emphasis on teachers' reflection and inquiry, but attach great importance to university-school partnerships and teacher's learning community. What's more, the standards highly recommend the structural diversity of teacher as a whole and teaching evaluation approaches.These features of national TPD standards teach China great lessons. In a macro sense, China's3TPD standards are expected to not only reflect the tendency of lifelong learning and diversity of student's needs and performance assessment, but also emphasize university-school partnerships. In a micro sense, when constructing its TPD standards, China should take into consideration its current economic and social condition, with emphasis on the coordination between learning institutions at all levels. Important is that classroom teachers participate in the formation of TPD standards, which helps actualize the cooperation between teachers, families, local communities and teacher education institutions. In addition, China's TPD standards are also supposed to place emphasis on teacher's command and use of latest teaching technology.