A Study Of Effects Of Reflective Teaching On English Teachers' Teaching Skills In Middle Schools

Under the condition of the deepening in reform of middle school English teaching,the increasing requirements on qualified middle school English teachers are eager to find an efficient way to improve teacher development.Recent researches both abroad and at home focus much on reflective teaching and indicate that there is relationship between reflective teaching and teachers' teaching skills.Many researchers think that reflective teaching is a good way to improve teachers' teaching skills.The study aims to explore the current situation for English teachers in middle schools to practice reflective teaching in Hezheng and the effects of reflective teaching on English teachers' teaching skills in middle schools and then find the change of understanding on reflective teaching of middle school English teachers.Based on some rules written by He Guangkeng(2001),the author used the questionnaire to invest the current situation of 120 middle school English teachers' reflective teaching in Hezheng county,a poor place in Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture.Besides,a pre-interview to 5 teachers was used by author to describe basic understanding of reflective teaching of the teachers.And then,the author used 3 pieces of 5 teachers' teaching journals written in a semester after their reading classes and classroom observation to see what effects reflective teaching has on their teaching skills.The author used the same interview to find the change of their understandings on reflective teaching.The data of questionnaires presented some aspects of middle school English teachers reflect on in Hezheng county,the methods that English teachers would use to reflect.The result indicated that the current situation of reflective teaching was unsatisfactory.The result of interview proved that some teachers knew a little about reflective teaching,but their understandings were not so comprehensive.At last,some excerpts of 5 teachers' teaching journals on their reading classes were presented to show that reflective teaching has effect on some aspects of teachers' teaching skills like teachers' ability of presentation,their ability of questioning and giving feedback and their ability of dealing with the unexpected events in class as well as organizing the teaching.Classroom observation proved the effects of teaching journals again.The post-interview presented that teachers had a more comprehensive understanding of reflective teaching after a-semester teaching journals writing.According to the results,the author gave some suggestions.Leaders should put stress on teachers' own development and create conditions for teachers to do reflective teaching,such as classroom observation,writing teaching journals and giving some awards based on teachers' performance.Middle school English teachers in Hezheng county themselves should also communicate with other colleagues and pay attention totheir own teaching skills.