Research On Teacher Leadership In Lesson Plan Group

"Teacher leadership" originated from the educational revolution of USA and European countries, and it is widely accepted that "teacher leadership" has brought certain positive effects to both school revolution and teachers’ professional development, which finally led to the improvement in students’ academic performance. After being introduced to Hong Kong and then China Mainland, the magic power of "teacher leadership" is strongly expected by Chinese scholars. Whether "teacher leadership" is able to suit for Chinese education pattern and school system remains as the key issue that Chinese scholars are interested in. In this study, I will conduct the research in the lesson plan group in school to find out whether "teacher leadership" has appeared in lesson plan group and what kinds of problems and challenges it has met. In addition, whether "teacher leadership" has brought positive effects to both Chinese school system and teachers’ professional development.According to my research, I found "teacher leadership" really occurs in the lesson plan group. And first of all, the teacher members confirmed the democratic nature of the group leader. But compared with the leaders in science group, teacher leaders from arts group tend to be more democratic in the management. Secondly, the teacher leaders in science group fulfilled more leading than the leaders in arts group. Thirdly, there exists remarkable difference in teachers’ titles and their chances of receiving help from the group leader. The higher title the teacher members own, the less help they will receive from the leader, while the more they tend to offer help to other teachers and initiate as well as organize the activities in the lesson plan group. Also, I found most of new teachers tend to lack the awareness of being a teacher leader. In addition, there exists hidden patterns of "teacher leadership" in the lesson plan group and "teacher leadership" is considered as a key method to promote teachers’ professional development especially in professional knowledge, skills and the collaboration among colleagues for both group leaders and members in the lesson plan group. Last but not least, the ideal teacher leader in teachers’ heart is a person with perfect integration of good quality, outstanding professional development and leading skills.In the final part of the thesis, I will try to offer strategies and suggestions from the perspectives of school, lesson plan group and individual teacher in order to improve the application of "teacher leadership" in Chinese schools and lesson plan groups.