A Study On Novice English Teachers’ Professional Development In Junior Middle Schools

Without teachers of high quality, education of high quality cannot be achieved in that teachers are performers and participators of education. Teachers’ professional development, which is an effective way of promoting teachers’ quality, is of great importance to education. Novice teachers, the new blood of teaching staff, meet with particular difficulties of their own since they are inexperienced but shoulder the same responsibility and tasks. Therefore, the present study focuses on novice teachers’ professional development.The present study lays emphasis on the theory of teachers’ professional development, including the definition, theoretical basis, features, approaches and models, which aims to explore how junior middle school novice English teachers get their professional development. The author chooses thirty novice English teachers from three key middle schools in Ping Xiang as research subjects, and makes an investigation for 12 weeks to find out answers of the following questions through questionnaires, in-depth interviews, observation method:1) What is the current situation of junior middle school novice English teachers’ professional development?2) What difficulties do junior middle school novice English teachers face in their professional development?3) What self-directed approaches do junior middle school novice English teachers take to overcome these difficulties and promote their professional development?The author conducts an analysis of qualitative and quantitative methods, and the following conclusion can be drawn:First of all, junior middle school novice English teachers have strongawareness to develop. The current situation of their professional development is relatively good and satisfactory, but still needs improving. In addition, novice junior middle school English teachers not only meet with difficulties caused by external factors such as students, colleagues and schools, but also face problems due to themselves such as identity transition and deficiency of professional knowledge.Finally, junior middle school novice English teachers can benefit from peers’ help,improving confidence from others’ praise and sense of responsibility for their role in order to improve their professional attitude; they can benefit from experienced teachers’ coaching and useful resources such as Internet in order to improve their professional competence; they can benefit from reflective teaching in order to improve their professional knowledge, professional competence and professional attitude. Novice teachers come up with six approaches in order to get self-directed professional development to solve their difficulties.Therefore, this research finds that self-directed professional development can provide a new method for teachers to get improvement. Novice teachers can depend on themselves and the surroundings to solve problems in work and get development.Pursuing professional development actively is better than waiting for help passively.Meanwhile, self-directed development also provides a new idea for teachers’ professional development.