Elements Affecting Professional Learning Communities For Middle School English Teachers

With the development of the science and society,traditional top-down teacher training can no longer meet the needs of teacher development.As a new way of professional development,the professional learning communities(PLCs)have gradually been sought after by teachers.The professional learning communities have broken the traditional teacherinjected training model,emphasizing the initiative in teachers' professional development from the perspective of teachers' independent development.However,there are still many problems in the formation and implementation of the teacher professional learning communities in China.Based on literature review,this study proposes three dimensions of the elements influencing the professional learning communities: school,staff relationship and individual teachers.Based on these three dimensions,in order to further investigate the elements affecting the professional learning communities,this study focuses on the following two research questions:1)Do the external elements such as school policy,school leadership,school time and staff relationship affect the professional learning communities for middle school English teachers?2)Do the subjective elements like teachers' willingness and motivation influence the professional learning communities for middle school English teachers?Questionnaires and interviews are adopted to conduct research on the three dimensions of school,staff relationship and individual teachers.Sixty-one middle school English teachers in Guangdong Province were selected as the subjects of the study.At the same time,four middle school English teachers surveyed were engaged in structural interviews to form an effective supplement to the quantitative data.Elements affecting the professional learning communities of middle school English teachers are concluded as follows: 1)There is a lack of policy support from school in forming PLCs,2)School leadership dominates decisions making which are not democratic;3)School time allocation is unreasonable for PLCs practice;4)Insufficient cooperative culture among teachers;5)Teachers' insufficient willingness to engage themselves in PLCs practice.According to the results of the study,constructive strategies are proposed for PLCs development and practice,thereby promoting the professional development of teachers and the academic progress of students.