Needs Analysis Of Professional Development:Perspective Of Special-post English Teachers In Hunan

Rural education has aroused great concern among the public for many years. Due to the lack of teachers and unreasonable age structure, the development of rural English education has been heavily restricted, which intensifies the unbalance between urban and rural education. Under this context, a policy called "Plan of Special Posts" is implemented to provide quality teachers for rural areas. Combining the characteristics of novice and rural teachers, special-post English teachers have special needs in professional development. Needs analysis of special-post English teachers' needs in professional development helps design a proper way that can enhance the teachers' professional development.In this study, one hundred and thirteen special-post English teachers from Hunan were invited to take part in the investigation. Online questionnaire and face to face interview were adopted for a survey of special-post English teachers' needs in professional development. This thesis tries to answer the following questions:What was the current situation of special-post English teachers' professional development? What needs did special-post English teachers have? Were they satisfied with their professional development? If not, what were the major factors affecting meeting special-post English teachers' needs in professional development?After the analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data, the main findings show that:Firstly, special-post English teachers have few opportunities to take part in professional development and their participation in professional development activities is not frequent. Yet they hold a positive attitude towards these activities and perceive these activities useful. Secondly, special-post English teachers show great needs in professional development, whereas the need of professional competence seems urgent, including teaching skills, management and communicative skills, information and communication technology skills and research ability. The main factors affecting meeting special-post English teachers' needs in professional development are heavy workload, few opportunities to attend professional training and lack of mentors and many others.According to the results, suggestions are provided in this project. Self-directed, school-based and online community professional approaches should be offered for special-post English teachers to enhance their professional development.The research not only helps special-post English teachers identify their needs but also offers suggestions for educators and administrators of local authority to design needs-related professional development activities to facilitate teachers' professional development.