Promoting Western Less-developed Region Senior Middle School English TPD By Peer Observation

With the execution of a new curriculum and its higher demands on teaching and learning quality,the issue of teacher professional development stands out and is becoming the main focus of teachers and schools because teachers are the key to improving the quality of teaching and learning and teachers'teaching directly affects students' learning methods,ideas,and learning effect.No high level of teams of teachers,no high quality of education.However,due to the limitation of geographic and economic conditions,the resources and opportunities for teachers to receive training and further education in administrative leading mode,school leading mode and expert leading mode are limited.To promote teachers' professional development,peer observation under the teacher leading mode is the most effective form for Chinese Western Less-developed Region senior high school English teachers.Class observation is the most familiar and convenient form of teaching and research to senior high school English teachers.Of course,peer observation is not equivalent to the traditional class observation.It is performed for the purpose of teacher professional development.Class observation has a solid foundation in senior middle school,which is simple to carry out and very realistic to Chinese Western Less-developed Region.This thesis discusses the issues about what beliefs senior middle school English teachers hold about peer observation at the present stage,their practice and problems before,in and after peer observation when serve both as observers and teachers being observed and how to implement peer observation.Whether peer observation fulfills the goal of promoting the development and improvement of teachers depends on the process of organization and implementation.The pre-class instructions and training,including helping the participants become well-prepared psychologically and technically,should be given to the teachers beforehand.Moreover,in the process of peer observation,we should emphasize the pre-class preparation meeting and make sure that the process of class observation goes scientifically and normatively.However,the overall activity doesn't end with the after-class assessments.The teacher being observed should pay attention to the rearrangement of teaching plan,self-reflection and the overall assessment from peers,with the purpose of writing a reflective teaching journal.The present study aims to examine and describe teacher's beliefs about peer observation in response to the new challenge faced by English teachers in senior high schools,as seen in the case of five cities in Gansu province.This study is descriptive and the quantitative and qualitative data were obtained through questionnaires,interviews and observation.Specifically speaking,the author attempts in the first place to find out what beliefs senior middle school English teachers hold about peer observation at the present stage,their practice and problems before,in and after peer observation when serve both as observers and teachers being observed.The study is designed as a tentative study of senior middle school English teachers practice and beliefs that influence teachers' classroom behavior.The findings show that peer observation do promote teachers professional development with their beliefs in their mind to guide their behaviors.First,the detailed record of the contents of the class and the consultation to the materials after class can help to make up the blind spots of teachers' professional knowledge.Second,in the pre-class and after-school meetings,the feedback and suggestions between teachers give both sides a platform and an opportunity to reflect and improve their professional teaching ability.Third,in the whole process of peer observation,collaboration and reflection between teachers can strengthen teachers' professional spirit.But the results also show that problems also exist in the whole three stages of peer observation,that is,pre-class preparation,class teaching process and post-class reflection.As a result,the effect of peer observation didn't get the biggest play.Therefore,education administrators should strengthen the teacher training of peer observation norms to establish a set of scientific,reasonable,perfect peer observation system,making it the standardized,normalized and autonomy way of promoting teachers' professional development.The thesis is significant for both English teaching and teacher professional development.Teachers can combine their classroom practice with the needs of society and students so that they can promote their teaching and professional development.