Developing Teachers' Professional Competence In Professional Learning Communities

Novice teachers' professional growth has always been a hot topic in the education field.Many research findings have revealed that novice teachers face such challenges as classroom discipline,instructional assessment,relationship with students etc.in their beginning years.With the advancement of rounds of education reforms,novice teachers are facing even more severe challenges due to their lack of experience and their inflexibility in dealing with problems arising from the teaching context.What's more,novice teachers,as an indispensable part of the whole teacher group,their experience and growth in their beginning years not only affect their future professional development but also the quality of education to some extent.Therefore,establishing the helping mechanism to facilitate novice teachers' transition from education to work and so as to help them adapt to the huge education context is of great significance.Professional Learning Community(also PLC),since its proposal,has attracted great attention for its call for shared vision and practice.So far,researches about PLCs at home and abroad have made significant progress,however,compared with researches aboard,researches at home are still relatively immature,largely focusing on the discussion at the macro-level,such as the theoretical bases,construction strategy,etc.,suffering from a narrow landscape,especially a lack of view on the combination of PLC with specific subject group.While there are few researches focused on EFL(English as Foreign Language)teachers,researches focused on novice EFL teacher group are even scare.What's more,although there are many researches keen on the discussion of the impacts of PLCs,both at the school level and at the individual level,there is little attention to the process or the mechanism of how PLCs facilitate the improvement.Based on this fact,starting from the Situated Learning theory suggested by Lave and Wenger(1991)and relying on the achievements of previous work,the present study tries to find out the effects of subject-based PLC activities on novice EFL teachers,especially their professional competence development and further explores the mechanisms behind.The research is guided by the following questions:(1)What positive effects do subject-based PLC activities have on novice EFL teachers'professional competence development?(2)What factors facilitate novice EFL teachers' professional competence development in subject-based PLC activities?(3)How do subject-based PLC activities work on novice EFL teachers' professional competence development?The study,employing a qualitative case study methodology and concentrating on three novice EFL teachers,analyzed the effects of subject-based PLC activities on novice teachers' professional competence development and the mechanisms behind.The results show that the effects of subject-based PLC activities on novice EFL teachers'professional competence development can fall into three domains:the domain of professional knowledge,the domain of professional practice and the domain of professional attributes.Each domain can be further divided into several sub-items.In the domain of professional knowledge,changing views about instructional objectives can be found;in the domain of professional practice,selecting and arranging instructional tasks,improving instructional process,perception about discourse analysis and practice of reflective teaching are presented while in the domain of attributes,strengthened beliefs about pursuing dreams and renewed perception about teaching and education are listed.What's more,the improvement in professional competence perceived by the three participants is achieved by their active participation,their situated learning and reflective practice based on problem-solving in community activities.The research also found that novice teachers' professional growth within communities is a process of constructing their self-identities.At last,the research gave several suggestions on constructing sustainable PLCs so as to achieve ever-lasting positive benefits from PLC activities:first and foremost,for school leaders,they should first recognize the significance of beginning years at work for novice teachers and figure out their special needs at this stage.They should also actively seek professional guide for novice teachers while try to establish effective system for their professional learning.Secondly,novice teachers themselves should have a proper perception about themselves as well as their profession,develop inner motivation and continuously seek self-development.Lastly,for in-service teacher educators,they should actively establish learning platform for novice teachers and provide professional guide for their professional development.