The Effects Of Reflective Teaching On Professional Development Of College English Teachers In Inner Mongolia

In the late1980s, the focus has been shifted from teaching methodology to teachereducation and teacher professional development in the foreign language education andresearch. Meanwhile, the model of reflective teaching has been in vigorous development.Many scholars home and abroad carry out plentiful and constructive researches onteacher professional development and reflective teaching. However, the related studies inInner Mongolia are rare.This paper adopts the qualitative and quantitative research method with the tools ofquestionnaire, reflective journal and interview, and time span is15weeks. This studyfirst has surveyed the current situations of reflective teaching in175college Englishteachers in Inner Mongolia. On the basis of the questionnaire, the research chooses twoteachers with better reflection and richer teaching experience as the subjects for furtherinvestigation of the effects of reflective teaching on teacher professional developmentthrough reflective journals. In order to have the better understandings of reflectiveteaching and teacher professional development, another three college English teacherswith different academic titles are interviewed, and their answers serve as the additionalinformation for the findings.The findings are presented as follows:First of all, the reflective teaching of college English teachers in Inner Mongolia isunsatisfactory and unsystematical. Their reflections are in the low technical level andteachers are far more concerned about their own teaching methods than the value ofteaching effects and they lack the critical reflection and analysis on the panorama ofeducation and long-term planning of career. To be specific, the reflection survey coversthree aspects, namely, reflective focus, reflective techniques and reflection effects. In thesurvey72%of college English teachers reflect their teaching, but58%do not knowreflective teaching well. For reflective focus, what college English teachers reflect most isteaching method, whereas the least one is teaching aim. The favorite reflective technique iscommunication with students through different channels and discussion with experienced teachers, while the least popular one is recording their classroom teaching. With regard toreflection effects,87%of college English teachers hold the positive attitudes towards thefacilitation of reflective teaching to teacher professional development and believereflective teaching can promote their professional growth in some aspects, and the mostagreed one is teaching practice, whereas the least one is research.Secondly, difficulties and obstacles prevailing among college English teachers remainunsolved. The difficulties listed in the order are:1. teachers reflect their teaching, but theirproblems are not solved because of various reasons;2. teachers can not reflect wellbecause of their limitations of time and energy;3. teachers do not know the appropriatereflective ways or approaches, and4. teachers do not know what should be reflected intheir teaching.Finally, through the reflective journals of two teachers, the two teachers benefit fromtheir after-class reflection in constructing their pedagogical content knowledge. The twoteachers discover problems in their reflection speculating them and testifying theirteaching practice in the subsequent teaching. Teacher A is aware of his discrepancies inEnglish language knowledge and classroom teaching skills, and he is conscious of theaccumulation of pedagogical content knowledge in his future teaching. Teacher B canhandle classroom management better in a very complicated teaching environment,consolidate and strengthen the teaching knowledge. The interview further confirms theunderstanding to reflective teaching, teacher professional development and its effects.This research is meaningful for providing suggestions and implications for collegeEnglish teachers. It is also hoped that the present study can shed some light on reflectiveteaching and teacher professional development and lead to more extensive awareness andstudy in this field.