The Study Of Reciprocal Learning In A Teacher Community

The 13 th Five-Year Plan for National Education proposed to improve the competence of teachers and strengthen the ranks of teachers.Teacher community aims to promote the professional development and improve the competence of teachers.Reciprocal learning emphasizes equality,reciprocity and sharing goodwill among teachers.The teacher community formed by university and middle school can realize the professional development of teachers and also reflects that reciprocal learning requires equality,reciprocity and contribution of wisdom.It not only helps the university obtain scientific data,but also helps the middle school to improve the quality of education.The author selects the teacher community jointly formed by U university and S middle school as research subjects and follows them for a year.Under this teacher community,teachers who work in university will give courses in the middle school while middle school teachers serve as teaching assistants.Both parties carry out reciprocal learning by observing classes,attending lectures and seminars.In this study,eight teachers who have been in this community for a relatively long period of time are the main targets,data collection through interviews and observations to explore the reciprocal learning and influencing factors in the teacher community.The questions for this research are as follows:(1)What are the aspects of reciprocal learning in the teacher community?(2)What factors could facilitate and impede reciprocal learning in the teacher community?Data analysis results show that: 1)The reciprocal learning in the teacher community is embodied in three aspects: education philosophy,teaching experiences,the learning situation of middle school students and teaching researches.Among them,the proportion of education philosophy and teaching experience in reciprocal learning in the teacher community are higher than the learning situation of middle school students and teaching researches.From the perspective of university and middle school respectively,university teachers as director,teachers of middle school have acquired advanced education philosophy,while middles school teachers as director,university teacher have arrived at a comprehensive understanding of the learning situation of middle school students and obtained scientific research data.Both sides share teaching experience with each other;2)Reciprocal learning in the community is mainly influenced by three factors: individual factors,administrative power and organization structure.Among them,individual factors include teachers’ professional development and common interests and demands,administrative power includes school administrative support and teacher empowerment,and organization structure includes organizational coordination and supervision in the community.In order to promote reciprocal learning in the teacher community,the study suggests that reciprocal learning culture should be built.Community system should be improved to keep everyone engaged to be clear about their rights and responsibilities.Moreover,communication should be strengthened to promote resource sharing.In terms of building a reciprocal learning culture,administrative staff in charge of the community should create a free learning cultural atmosphere and teachers participating in the community should seize the opportunity to ensure common development with their colleagues;in terms of the community system,a management committee,a coordination and implementation group and an evaluation group can be set up to keep all work going smoothly in the community;teachers from both sides can enhance communication and share resources through curriculum development,peer observation and joint teaching and research.