A Case Study On Coteaching Between Chinese English Teachers And Native English Teachers

Teacher professional development is a long-term and arduous task.In order to improve elementary and middle school English teaching quality,it is necessary to enhance English teachers’ professionalization.Nowadays,in China there are two ways usually applied to cultivate teachers’ professional development,teacher training and self-learning(Wu,158).Obviously,these models own limitations towards teacher further development.Teachers place much emphasis on themselves and work in isolation.Besides,most teacher education programs are knowledge-centered where teachers work as passive learners who can not combine related theories with real teaching practice.Therefore,how to make the best of resources to improve teachers’ practice ability is the basis of promoting teacher professional development.According to the previous research both abroad(Dove and Honigsfeld,3-20)and at home(Mou and Bai,4-6),coteaching as a typical model of cooperative teaching is an effective way to promote teacher professionalization,which provides teachers with opportunities to share expertise and make the best use of resources.Therefore,this research attempts to figure out in what ways does the coteaching contribute to coteachers’ professional development and what factors would affect the coteaching and teacher professionalization.During the professional development,teachers are also working as learners.Thus,on the theoretical basic of lifelong learning theory and constructivism,the author applies the qualitative method to finish this research.The subjects of this survey are two Chinese English teachers and one native English teacher.The investigation covers teachers’ knowledge and attitudes towards coteaching and the development of their professionalization.The results from questionnaire indicate that most coteachers hold an positive attitude towards coteaching practice;the models of cooperative teaching involving pre-class coplanning,in-class teaching,and after-class communication.Through teacher journals and interviews,data are collected to explore the factors influencing coteaching and the impacts on teacher professional development.The factors which affect the coteaching and teacher professionalization are found,including personal differences in awareness towards cooperation,personality,and some objective factors,such as workload,teacher training,and supports from school administration.The results of the research data also show that coteaching is beneficial to English teachers’ professional development in the four aspects of language proficiency,cultivation of cross-cultural awareness and improvement of teaching skills as well as cooperative ability.