A Survey Of English Special-post Teachers’ Professional Development

In 2006, to alleviate the shortage of rural teachers and to improve the overall quality of the rural teachers, Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Ministry of Personnel (MOP) jointly issued "the Special Teaching Post Plan for Rural Schools" (Special-post Plan for Short) by recruiting graduates of universities to work for three years in rural schools in western China. According to the statistics, from 2006 to 2013, more than 58,000 special-post teachers have been allocated to schools in 62 less-developed counties of Guizhou Province. As a new-born teacher group, the current situation of their professional development deserves much attention.Enlightened by the previous studies on English Teachers’Professional Development (ETPD) and studies on the special-post Teachers’Professional Development (TPD), this thesis by means of questionnaire and interview conducts an in-depth investigation of the current conditions, the influencing factors of the English special-post TPD and their expectations for their professional development. Then it attempts to provide some proposals for promoting the English special-post TPD.After analysis and discussion, the results can be exhibited as follows:the English special-post TPD is of medium level. (1) They have acquired knowledge of pedagogy and psychology but lack linguistic knowledge, cross-cultural knowledge, knowledge about English teaching methodology and knowledge about the New English Curriculum Criteria. (2) They have difficulty in selecting a suitable way to evaluate students’ progress, carrying out teaching activities effectively, using a variety of questioning techniques and dealing with occasional events. (3) Most of the participants possess a teaching belief which is beneficial to students’ learning. (4) Their self-consciousness of professional development needs to be improved.Besides, a variety of factors have impeded their professional development such as heavy teaching workload, unfavorable living environment, few training opportunities, lack of guidance, etc.Therefore, a series of suggestions are put forward from three aspects:the government, schools and the English special-post teachers. For one thing, the government should enhance the advertisement of the Special Teaching Post Plan for Rural Schools. For another, it should increase the investment to improve their living and teaching environment. As for schools, they should, first of all, lessen the English special-post teachers’ burden so as to give teachers more time and energy to improve their professional development. Then, schools should offer them more training chances and improve the quality of training. Moreover, schools should jointly build a learning community. As for the English special-post teachers, they should enhance consciousness of self-development and initiatively seek multiple channels to improve their professional development.