A Study Of Teacher Professional Development Based On An Online Learning Community-CLEN

Teachers spend their whole life pursuing professional development and it turns to be arough but meaningful process with professional ability growth. Teachers’ professionaldevelopment widely involves all aspects of their work and life. Thus, the developmentprocess is dynamic and full of innovation. Later, with the rapid development of informationand communication technology, online learning community, as a new method for TPD hascame out under the background of educational reform. It gradually becomes popular andprovides teachers with an ideal environment to construct knowledge and obtain professionaldevelopment.This study is based on an online learning community: China Language EducatorsNetwork (CLEN) to study how it influences teachers’ professional development. And thereare two main research questions in this paper.1) What learning activities do teachers take part in in the online learning communityCLEN?2) Do the learning activities in CLEN promote teacher’s professional development? Inwhich aspects?This study lasts for a whole year to continuously track and observe the learning activitiesthat teachers take part in in the online learning community. Besides, the interpretation andanalysis of learning activities data could be seen as well in this paper by using such researchmethods like content analysis and interview. Conclusions are as follows:1) Teachers have joined into all sorts of learning activities in CLEN. And the learningactivities can be divided into three categories according to their characteristics and thedominant power. They are: self-led learning activities, instructor-led learning activities andcollaborative learning activities. Moreover, interaction between members in these threecategories of learning activities is getting increasingly stronger and a progressive layers couldalso be seen from individual to group by comparing these learning activities.2) It is proved that the teachers’ professional development goals have been achieved tovarying degrees through taking part in meaningful learning activities and collaboration withother members in CLEN. Thus, teachers’ development is reflected in improvement in theirbelief system, knowledge system, competence system and ethic system.The research result not only proves that CLEN successfully promotes members’professional development, but also provides a powerful case for believing online learningcommunity could be a meaningful method for teachers’ professional development. Moreover,this study makes teachers more confident in their professional development in the future by showing them a modern and effective development pattern as online learning community.In the future research, qualitative research method should combine with quantitative researchmethod to strengthen the credibility of research data. Only in this way, a more systematicTPD model and the acceleration effect of online learning community on teachers’professional development could be demonstrated.