International Baccalaureate Research Of Teachers' Professional Development

More and more Chinese schools in mainland china adopted theeducational philosophy and ideal of International BaccalaureateOrganization (IBO) and started offering Chinese students its educationprogrammes, especially the Diploma Program (IBDP). While more andmore Chinese teachers started teaching in these IB schools, the statusquo of these teachers’ professional development and the ways of theirprofessional development and the challenges in terms of professionalqualities that they encountered have fallen into the sight of relevantstakeholders of these schools and some interested researchers.Based on a review of the IBO’s documents regarding teachers’professional development and the review of relevant literaturecontributed by Chinese and overseas researchers, this case study of atypical Chinese IBDP school sought to observe and analyze the realsituation of Chinese teachers’ professional qualities in the context of thecharacteristics and specialties of IBDP education and the functions ofdifferent ways professional development of Chinese teachers who areteaching in these schools.The main purpose of this study was to provide Chinese IB worldschools some possibly valuable results by conducting a theoreticalresearch on teachers’ professional development from a newperspective. Meanwhile, based on the reflections of IB practitioners andtheoretical analysis, this study tried to give teachers, schools and evenIBO some suggestions.The first part of this paper reviewed the definitions of teachers’professional development given by Chinese and overseas researchers and reviewed the literature on the effective factors of teachers’professional development and on teachers’ professional qualities.Based on a review of the documents published by IBO with respect toteachers’ professional development, this paper concluded that theconceptual framework of IB teachers’ professional development wasdeeply rooted in IBO’s education ideal and philosophy and IBOattached much importance to teachers’ professional development.Moreover, IBO precisely defined the concept of teachers’ professionaldevelopment as well as the relevant responsibilities that schools shouldtake for this matter, set up specialized departments to take theresponsibilities for teachers’ professional development and providedvarious ways of development for teachers. This paper also reviewed thepast relevant researches conducted by Chinese academia andsummarized with several common study interests and methods.On this basis, the second part of this paper took the assumption thatteachers’ professional qualities consisted of their basic qualities andtheir special professional qualities as teachers. This part then continuedto analyze the properties of teachers’ qualities in the context of IBprograms. This paper argues that seven professional qualities, namelyglobal awareness, critical thinking, life-long learning, informationliteracy, language ability, creativity and collaboration, are essential forIB teachers.Through two surveys of the teachers and students and byinterviewing teachers in a typical Chinese IBDP school, this studydiscovered the characteristics and weaknesses of Chinese IBDPteachers’ professional qualities. Based on data analysis, this paperargued that Chinese IB teachers demonstrated differences from otherdomestic teachers in terms of professional qualities. By analyzing teachers’ actual performances, teachers’ self-recognition andstudents’ assessment, this paper established a developmental modelconsisted of five levels of professional qualities of IB teachers. At thesame time, this paper discussed the weaknesses of Chinese teacherswith regard to the preceding seven qualities from the perspective ofnew recruited teachers and teachers’ perception. Particularly, thispaper analyzed the weaknesses on global awareness and criticalthinking of teachers of IB subjects. The teachers’ interview verified theassumption of six major ways of professional development for Chinese IBteachers. This paper then analyzed the contents, approaches andteachers’ evaluation about these ways of development. And thereforethe links between different levels of qualities and different ways ofprofessional development were provided.At last, this paper gave suggestions to Chinese IB teachers, ChineseIB schools and IBO. Firstly, Chinese IB teachers ought to improve theirunderstanding of professional development, learn to comprehend thehigher level professional qualities presented in the developmentalmodel. Moreover, Chinese teacher should take proactive actions inorder to carry out and diversify their ways of professional development.Secondly, the schools should encourage teachers to take part in allkinds of workshops and conferences offered by IBO. Meanwhile, theschools should actively build subject groups as the core unit ofteachers’ professional development, encourage teachers to self-studyand give them more freedom when choosing the ways of professionaldevelopment. Thirdly, IBO ought to propagate its commitment toteachers’ professional development and implement relevant measuresand requirements. It also needs to prompt Chinese IB schools to playmore active roles and develop special ways of professionaldevelopment for Chinese IB teachers.