Study On The Correlation Between High School English Teachers’Reflection Ability And Their Professional Development

With the persistent deepening of high school English teaching innovation during the latest decades, the professional development of high school English teachers, as the critical point in implementation of quality education reform, has gained increasing concern among a great majority of educators in China.From the perspective of teacher education, teachers can be regarded as learners who do their effort to be professional. The professional development of foreign language teachers refers to the dynamic process of unceasingly developing and improving of the professional knowledge, skills, qualities and belief system of them under the mechanism of teacher education through continuous learning and reflection. As a tool for professional development, reflection exemplifies Dewey’s theory and embodies the main characteristics of teachers’learning and developing.Therefore, the author conducts an empirical survey concerning the correlation between high school English teachers’reflection ability and their professional development in Ouhai District of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. Relevant data and information has been collected via questionnaires of teachers’reflection ability and teachers’professional development from71high school English teachers of several high schools with different level. Through quantitative analyses processed by software Statistical Product and Service Solutions version19.0(SPSS19.0), the status quo of high school English teachers’reflection ability, their professional development, demographical differences and the correlation between reflection ability and professional development has been analyzed aiming to examine the following issues:(1) the status quo of high school English teachers’reflection ability;(2) the status quo of high school English teachers’professional development;(3) whether there is any correlation between high school English teachers’reflection ability and their professional development;(4) if the correlation exists, how does each dimension of high school English teachers’refection influence their professional development? Primary findings relevant to the research questions are listed:Firstly, teachers tested have medium level of reflection ability as a whole. But the big gap among individual teachers reveals there is a need to make improvement. From the perspective of dimensions, teachers have strong sense of morality and do well in classroom management while their ability of critic thinking should be enhanced. The level of high school English teachers’professional development is moderately high and there is still a large space to make improvement. Secondly, personal and vocational differences like age, gender, teaching experience and professional title don’t have close relationship with high school English teachers’ reflection ability and their professional development. However, educational background has an effect on teachers’reflection ability, especially in dimensions of Cognition and Practice. While educational background has no significant influence on teachers’professional development. Finally, the analysis signifies that there is an obvious and significant positive correlation between high school English teachers’ reflection ability and their professional development. The model shows that PD=2.596+0.455*Reflection which means high school English teachers’professional development will increase0.455degree for every increase of their reflection ability. The higher high school English teachers’reflection level is, the better their professional development would be. Correlation between each dimension of high school English teachers’reflection ability and high school English teachers’ professional development has been analyzed.On the basis of the findings of quantitative analyses, the study puts forward some implications for high school education administration and individual teachers as well. In addition, limitations of the study are listed so as to provide some information for future study in this field.