University EFL Teacher Professional Developmnet In An Online Environment

In the developmental process of foreign language teaching and learning, the teacher isalways the significant figure. In recent years, many experts and educators are placingincreasingly more emphasis on EFL teachers’ professional development, and makingfruitful achievements with Chinese characteristics. In the meantime, recent years alsowitness the rapid advancement of network technology which is represented by thedevelopment of web2.0framework. As applied in higher education, web2.0frameworkprovides effective technological support for efficient communication by realizing theorganic integration of learning resources, discussion, message taking, etc., which thereuponcreates a favorable platform for university EFL teacher professional development in thesense of knowledge acquisition, communication and innovation. In other words, it creates ameaningful learning environment which allows individual teachers to pursue their ownlearning in their own way, at their own paces and in their own communities. Therefore, asthe overlapping area of teacher professional development and network technology, themeaningful topic of university EFL teacher professional development in an onlineenvironment has emerged. Imbued with theoretical significance and practical value, suchresearch topic is definitely worthy of further academic exploration.With critical review of definitions and connotations of online environment and teacherprofessional development theories home and abroad, the author begins the exploration intouniversity EFL teacher professional development in an online environment, namely, onlineteacher professional development. Classical theoretical underpinnings of online teacherprofessional development and empirical researches of the last ten years are presented andcritiqued to clarify the findings and limitations of existing researches on online teacherprofessional development.On the basis of these literature research efforts, the author studies the followingquestions:1) what is the status quo of university EFL teacher professional development inan online environment?2) what are the needs and preferences of teachers in regard toonline professional development?3) what are the major problems with university EFLteacher online professional development?4) how can this situation be improved? These research questions are explored with both qualitative and quantitative researchmethods like questionnaire and in-depth interviews. The objectives of the questionnaire areto objectively reflect the status quo of university EFL teacher online professionaldevelopment with statistics and to select appropriate subjects to participate the interview.The findings of the questionnaire indicate that most teachers have clear understanding ofonline professional development and have acted accordingly in their online developmentalpractice. But their actual ability of online professional development is far from satisfying,especially when examined with specific standards. The questionnaire also inquires aboutteachers’ implementation of three online professional developmental approaches:self-directed approach, instructor-led approach and participation in online learningcommunity. Further details about the implementation are examined with a semi-structuredinterview which is participated by a selected number of subjects to ensure researcheffectiveness and productiveness. Based on the above researches, the author is able tolocate main problems of university EFL teachers in practicing online professionaldevelopment and provides suggestions to hopefully solve the problems.The benefits of the present study are two-fold. Firstly, it has theoretical contributionsto teacher professional development theory by examining it in the online environment,forming a specific research perspective and dimension. Second, the proposed solutions ofproblems in online teacher professional development have practical implications for EFLteacher online professional development, thus providing empirical findings for onlineteacher developmental programs.