The Influence Of Teaching Practice On Teachers' Professional Identity Of English Pre-service Teachers

Pre-service teachers are a special group of teachers.It will be the backbone of teachers in the future.This thesis aims to investigate the influence of teaching practice on the teachers'professional identity of English pre-service teachers.Teachers' professional identity is teachers' inner evaluation on the profession of teaching,influenced by individual,social environment and the profession itself.Teachers with high level of professional identity perform more consciously and proactively during working.The subjects of the thesis include 77 pre-service teachers in English major from three universities in Hubei Province.Teaching practice is an important part of "exchange program" in "National Training" which is a policy carried out in 2012.Pre-service teachers accomplish their teaching practice by taking the place of in-service teachers who take part in education training in universities.The thesis adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods.The data is collected through questionnaire,interview and teaching diary.The results of the thesis show that the overall level of teachers' professional identity of English pre-service teachers from three universities is high but there is no significant difference of overall level of pre-service teachers' professional identity before and after their teaching practice.After teaching practice,there is significant increase on the level of professional expectation,more significant increase on the level of professional efficacy but significant decrease on the level of professional value.From the data of interview and teaching diary,pre-service teachers shows dissatisfaction on social status of teachers and the salary of teachers.The result also shows that there is significant difference on the overall level of teachers' professional identity from the perspective of gender both before and after the teaching practice.There is no significant difference between urban and rural pre-service teachers' professional identity.But on the aspect of professional commitment,there is significant difference both before and after the teaching practice.The research reflects some problems in the pre-service teacher education program in universities,for example,lack of instructors,poor ability in classroom management,weak relation between theory and practice,and difficulty in integrating into teacher community.Suggestions are also provided,such as prolonged the time for teaching practice,diversified the forms of teaching practice,more attention to the instructors in practice and enhancing the relation between theory and practice in teacher education.What's more,the state should improve the social status as well as the salary of teachers.It should improve the salary of teachers,at the same time correctly guide the formation of professional value of teachers.Only after recognized and paid attention to the profession of teaching by the society,community and individuals can education in China boom.