"Craftsman-type" History Teacher Competency Research

Teachers’career development is important in curriculum revolution of fundamental education. However, the current goals for in-service teachers are too high to meet their most urgent needs. This study aims to set an appropriate development goal for novice teachers of history,"craftsmen-like" teachers. In order to set models for novice teachers, the current study gains detailed understandings through analyzing the characteristics of individual competence of this special type of teachers.The study set the scope on teachers’competence and took a typical "craftsmen-like" teacher-Chen Zhijia-as the subject of the case study, to investigate the characteristics of teachers’competence developments phases and domains. Through the in-depth investigation into Chen’s four phases of career development:adapting phase, maturing phase, developing phase and influencing phase, and three domains of competence:teaching, class management and cooperation, the study drew conclusions as follows:"Craftsmen-like" teachers have different characteristics in each of the development phases, which are accordant with the development tasks of the phases. In the adapting phase, the vocational attitude related competence is dominant; in the maturing phase, teaching and class management competence is dominant; in the developing phase, the dominant competence is related to classroom teaching; in the influencing phase, the dominant competence is related to cooperation.The characteristics of "craftsmen-like" history teachers’competence domains are:the competence in classroom teaching domain goes through the most phases and lasts the longest, which indicates that the advantage of "craftsmen-like" history teachers comes from long-term accumulation, and in this process the competence related with learning takes an important role; class management competence mainly appears in the early phases of career development; cooperation competence appears the latest because it is based on higher professional skills and working experiences.The general characteristics of the "craftsmen-like" history teachers are:in different career development phases, the competence tends to focus on the domains which meet the needs of the tasks; due to different contradictions and tasks, competence in different domains develops in certain sequences; some kinds of competence may take especially important roles (e.g. learning competence). And the competence may also vary with the characteristics and situations of the owner of the development.