On Promoting Teacher Professional Development In The Context Of The New Curriculum Reform

It has become urgent to discuss the question of teacher professional development (TPD) in the setting of the New Curriculum Reform (the NCR). The implementation of the NCR has provided teachers with wider access to their professional development. Meanwhile, teachers, middle school teachers in particular, are undergoing great pressures from the changes and challenges brought about by the implementation itself. On one hand, they embrace the NCR with enthusiasm in the hope of improving their professional skills and sense of achievement; On the other hand, in response to the overloaded examinations, they regard the NCR as an extra burden, from which a series of problems and debates have arisen.This paper, first from the perspective of individual development, explores how to enhance teachers' awareness of the importance of professional development so as to lead them to a fruitful or successful career. It then discusses the mode of new professionalism, in which individual teachers can materialize their self-fulfillment. Finally, the paper dwells upon how to construct a collaborative teacher culture in the school, where teachers will no longer be isolated and be able to participate in various forms of collaborations such as meetings, discussions, and peer coaching, thus leading to the reform and progress of the whole school as a result of the spontaneous development of the design and implementation of the new curriculum as well as the advancement in individual professions and institutional new professionalism.