Professional Development Needs Of Primary School English Teachers And Influencing Factors

English teachers in primary schools are important human resources.To understand their professional development needs is of great significance for promoting their personal development,teaching and academic improvement,and thus promoting the improvement of teaching performance.In recent years,scholars at home and abroad have conducted a large number of studies on teachers’ professional development.A huge bulk of studies have extensively investigated professional development approaches and professional planning of teachers in colleges and universities,however,few attempts have been made to explore professional development needs and influencing factors of primary school English teachers.Therefore,this study mainly explored professional development needs of primary school English teachers and influencing factors(such as age,teaching age,title etc.)that influenced their professional development needs.This study,therefore,aimed to explore professional development needs of primary school English teachers and influencing factors(such as age,teaching age,title etc.)that influenced their professional development needs.For achieving these aims,this study adopted a mixed-methods approach.A total of 142 primary English teachers from three cities in Yunnan province participated in the questionnaire survey for quantitative data collection,and 6 of them were invited to be interviewed for qualitative data collection.To analyze the quantitative data,SPSS 22.0 was employed to conduct to describe the questionnaire data statistics,correlation analysis and ANOVA.The results obtained from data analysis showed that: 1)The primary English teachers in Yunnan region had a very high degree of professional development needs in each dimension.But there were some individual differences in the development needs of each dimension;2)Age was positively correlated with teaching development needs,professional development needs,organizational development needs and personal development needs.Regardless of age,teachers had different needs in these four aspects;3)No matter how long they had been teaching,teachers had demandsfor teaching professional development,organizational development and personal development.In addition,there was a significant positive correlation between teaching age and the demand for educational promotion;4)With the rise of the professional title of primary school English teachers,the demand for the four aspects gradually decreased.This study contributes to demystify the professional development needs of primary school English teachers and influencing factors.The results of this study may shed light on promoting professional development of primary school English teachers and provide some tentative suggestions for the professional development of teachers of different ages,ages and titles.Based on the findings,the study provides implications for primary school English deduction.The thesis ends with limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.