Research On Project Design And Implementation Effects Of The National Teacher Training Program From A Sociocultural Perspective

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance jointly launched the National Teacher Training Program in 2010, which is an important national policy to enhance the quality of primary and secondary school teachers. Taking the 2015 National Teacher Training Program of Guangzhou University(hereafter 2015NTTP-Guangzhou University) as an example, this study analyzes its project design from the Sociocultural Theory(hereafter SCT) perspective, and explores the implementation effects of the Program as well as its influence on the professional development of the trainees, hoping to provide some empirical and theoretical evidences for training programs of a similar kind.The participants of the study are 49 trainees who took part in a 10-day training program in Guangzhou University in 2015. Pre-training and post-training questionnaire surveys were conducted and the trainees' reflections were collected and analyzed in order to explore the impact of the Program on the trainees' professional development. Through the interviews of 8 trainees from different provinces and an anonymous evaluation for trainees organized by Ministry of Education one month after the training, the implementation effects of this program were evaluated.The design of 2015 NTTP-Guangzhou University is based on Activity System of SCT, which consists of six essential elements in the curriculum, namely object,subject, community, artifacts, division of labor, and rules. The design: 1) sets clear training goal to enhance trainees' teaching as well as training skills as prospective trainers(object); 2) is trainee-oriented, targeting at trainees' training needs to the greatest extent(subject); 3) maximizes the communication and collaboration of trainees and trainers(community); 4) utilizes various means including language,trainers, resources, classrooms, training methods and so on(artifacts); 5) sets clear requirements for both trainers and trainees(division of labor); 6) sets strict class discipline and a variety of assessment methods(rules).The investigation of the implementation effects of the Program shows that: 1.2015 NTTP-Guangzhou University has achieved a great success, ranking No.1 among the 56 institutions that held similar programs. The training idea of cooperation,interaction and sharing was implemented at the whole training. Multiple and creative training methods, clear assessment, strict rules and discipline, and the combination oftheoretical and practical training caused improvement in the trainees' abilities on teamwork, reflection on the teaching practice, and the combination of the advanced theories with the innovative teaching methods. 2. 2015 NTTP-Guangzhou University has exerted significant influence on the trainees' professional development. Specially,the Program has improved the trainees' abilities of professionalization on four aspects—teacher professional and specialized knowledge, teacher experiences,teacher learning, view of teaching profession and professional ethics. Moreover, it has pushed forward the innovation of foreign language teacher-training models and played a positive role on cultivating a group of seed teachers.