A Study On Novice English Teachers’ Professional Development In Colleges Based On Reflective Teaching Theory

In recent years, the researches on teacher development have shifted from theexploration of the educational methods to the professional level of teachers. Owning tothe fact that the traditional teaching methods have been unable to meet the needs ofstudents, educational reform has put forward new demands on teachers’ concepts andbehaviors. Reflective teaching has been a booming trend of teaching theory in the processof the educational reform. Reflective practice refers to a process of making-decision andcomplex-thinking of self-reflection, which is an improvement on the traditional teachingmethods for teachers’ professional development. In the relationship of the reflectiveteaching and teacher development, reflection is the means and the development is the goal,so it is an important task for teacher professional development to advocate the reflectiveteaching and training the reflective teachers. Therefore, this thesis focuses on how toapply the reflective teaching into the development of teachers, especially the noviceteachers’ development.The thesis lays emphasis on the theory of the reflective teaching, including the someresearches of the definition, theoretical basis, features, approaches and models, and thethesis provides an overview of the situation of teachers’ professional development, whichis to explore an effective way about their professional development of novice Englishteachers in colleges of China. Meanwhile, the author of this thesis chooses the twentynovice English teachers from four different universities in Shenyang as research objects,and makes an investigation for15weeks to find out some new changes of theirprofessional levels by the training of the reflective teaching through the researches of the questionnaires, in-depth interviews, observation, and documentary method. The followingquestions are listed:1) What’s the present situation of the reflective teaching applied among the noviceEnglish teachers in colleges?2) Is the reflective teaching beneficial to the change of teaching ideas, behaviors,methods and effects for the novice English teachers in colleges?3) How does reflective teaching on earth affect professional development amongthe novice English teachers in colleges?The author conducts an analysis of qualitative and quantitative methods, and thefollowing conclusion can be drawn:1) Before the training of the reflective teaching, twenty novice English teachers incolleges more or less understand the reflective teaching, but they seldom applythis method into the classroom teaching.2) After the training of reflective teaching, twenty novice English teachers incolleges have a certain understanding about the reflective teaching and theylearn to apply this method into the classroom teaching. And reflective teachingbrings about some changes of their teaching ideas, teaching behaviors, teachingmethods and teaching effects, which are beneficial to their classroom teaching.In brief, novice English teachers in colleges gradually learn this new teachingstyle to improve their teaching quality.3) After the training, twenty novice English teachers in colleges can timely detectthe teaching problems, and make an analysis and evaluation of the classroominformation, and obtain some benefits from the teaching practice, which revealsthe relationship between the reflective teaching and novice teachers’professional development.Therefore, this research finds that reflective teaching can provide a new teachingstyle for novice English teachers in colleges. The novice English teachers adjust andoptimize their teaching behaviors by teaching reflection to organize their class well, guidestudents’ learning, inspire students’ thinking and solve the real problems in the teachingprocess, which achieves the expected teaching effects. There is no doubt that the reflective teaching can promote teachers’ qualities and improve their professionaldevelopment in the field of the foreign language teaching. So the ability of the reflectiveteaching is necessary for English teachers and is one of the core issues in the teachereducation of the current foreign language.