A Study On Teacher Dispositions Of Novice English Teachers In Junior High Schools

The focus of the study is in the area of teacher dispositions. In recent years, teacher dispositions has been an important priority issue of American teacher education since it became a new component of American teacher evaluation system besides knowledge and skills. Similarly, in China, the construction of professional ethics is put at the first place of teacher development. In terms of their contents, teacher dispositions and professional ethics overlap to some extent. However, the scope of teacher dispositions’ content is far wider. Additionally, there are some feasibility standards which can be used to assess teacher dispositions. Therefore, it is significant to study the situation of Chinese teachers’ dispositions on the basis of American standards of teacher dispositions so as to facilitate the construction of professional ethics and improve the quality of teachers’ professional ethics. According to American standards of teacher dispositions, in the thesis, the content of teacher dispositions contains 5 aspects: Professional Ethics and Practice, Effective Communication and Cooperation, Sensitivity to Diversity and Equity, Ability of Facilitating Instruction, and Responsibility Consciousness. The purpose of the study is to figure out junior high school novice English teachers’ understandings and attitudes towards teacher dispositions and the situation of their teacher dispositions development, and to find out factors, if any, which may affect the development of teacher dispositions. The study tries to address three research questions:(1) What are junior high schools novice English teachers’ understandings and attitudes towards teacher dispositions?(2) What is the situation of junior high school novice English teachers’ dispositions development?(3) What factors affect the development of novice English teachers’ dispositions?Documentary data method, questionnaire method and interview method are used in the study. The study involved 212 novice English teachers(1-3 years working experience) who work at junior high schools in Shandong province. The research instruments involve the questionnaire and the software SPSS 16.0. The questionnaire is designed on the basis of reviewing INTASC’s standards and previous studies on teacher dispositions both at home and abroad. Before the questionnaire was widely handed out, its reliability and validity were tested on the basis of analyzing pilot data which were collected by investigating 60 novice English teachers in junior high schools. The questionnaire was handed out in two ways: paper questionnaire and online questionnaire. Besides collecting quantitative data through handing out questionnaires, the researcher also collected qualitative data by interviewing 5 junior high school novice English teachers in Yantai, Shandong.The researcher used the key word search function of Sojump and the software SPSS 16.0 to analyze the collected data. In the aspect of junior high school novice English teachers’ understandings to teacher dispositions, the respondents deem that teachers’ professional ethics, teachers’ exemplary role, concept of student, teachers’ personality and self-cultivation, attitudes towards the career, the capacity of collaboration and communication, concept of education, language accomplishment, the sense of responsibility and creativity should be involved in the content of teacher dispositions. Although the content of teacher dispositions that the respondents insist and the content of teacher dispositions standers overlap to some extent, the content that they insist are scattered and incomplete. Additionally, in terms of junior high school novice English teachers’ attitudes towards teacher dispositions, the findings of the study provide evidences that 93.8% respondents have positive attitudes towards teacher dispositions, and they believe that teacher dispositions can influence students’ all-round development, classroom instruction, attitudes towards the career. When it comes to the situation of junior high school novice English teachers’ dispositions development, it is found that most of the junior high school novice English teachers have positive dispositions, and the situation of junior high school novice English teachers’ dispositions development in the five dimensions(Professional Ethics and Practice, Effective Communication and Cooperation, Sensitivity to Diversity and Equity, Ability of Facilitating Instruction, Responsibility Consciousness) is favorable. Besides, the correlation between teacher dispositions and natural background(gender, teaching experience, teaching background and graduate schools) is not significant. In the aspect of factors which may affect the development of teacher dispositions, it is found that Pre-service Education, Schools’ Measures and Teachers’ Own Values are the factors which may influence the development of junior high school novice English teachers’ dispositions. Additionally, the factor—Teachers’ Own Values has the most predictive power on the development of junior high school novice English teachers’ dispositions. According to the analysis results of qualitative data which are collected by interviewing 5 junior high school novice English teachers, it is found that, besides Pre-service Education, Schools’ Measures and Teachers’ Own Values, climate of schools, social status, students quality, parents quality, concept of education, concept of student, teacher’ behaviors, the opportunity of professional development, colleagues’ help, social context and family education can also influence the development of teacher dispositions. In the light of the findings of the study, the researcher put forward some recommendations from three perspectives which include pre-service education in university and induction training, the construction of teacher dispositions in junior high schools, and novice English teachers’ self-improvement so as to facilitate the further development of junior high school novice English teachers’ dispositions.