Exploring Teachers' Professional Development

Teachers'professional development, as a very hot topic in Western educational field, is a relatively new research field in China. As more and more educators realized that the success of education reform relies on teachers, teacher development has become a new concern of educational reform and educational research, teachers'professional development, in a broad sense, refers to the development of a person in his or her professional role.A case study, lasting for one year, was done to investigate a college English teacher named Candy who has thirty-years teaching experience. Narrative inquiry and case study are the major research methods adopted in this research. The purpose of narrative inquiry is to understand and make meaning of human experience, and this is done through the voice of the narrator and the interpretation of the researcher (Clandinin & Connelly,2000). The data mainly comes from the interview records with the teacher, informal conversations and students'interviews. This research tries to figure out the following questions:(1) what affects teachers'attempts to promote their professional development? (2) How does the teacher achieve professional development? (3) What are the school's roles in promoting teachers' professional development?Studying Candy's life experience and teaching stories enables the researcher to reveal that critical reflection and teacher's practical knowledge play an essential role in teachers' professional development as well as the improvement of teaching practice. Teachers' professional development is an autonomous activity, with the aim of facilitating their students'autonomous learning. School should take the responsibility for providing a harmonious cultural environment for teachers'professional development, especially in the construction of teacher community. This research also implicates that educational philosophy is helpful to improve teachers' teaching practice and teacher learning. The current teacher evaluation system needs to reform in order to make teaching more efficient and teachers' development more effective. School-based curriculum on one hand represents the school's distinguished features, on the other hand, can urge teachers to pursue self development.