Study On American Teacher Professional Development In The Context Of PLC

Since the 1980s, there is a growing concern about teacher professional development, and the teacher professional development is also the driving force for all the education reforms. In America, it attaches great importance to the teacher professional development and it has proved to be effective in the practical implementation of professional learning community which is considered to be an important way to promote teacher professional development. Although it has made some progress to promote teacher professional development by professional learning community in China, there are still many places to be worth improving. Thus, it is necessary for us to learn from the practical experience of professional learning community's promoting American teacher professional development.Therefore, the vertical (historical) and horizontal (realistic) dimension are the main focus of this dissertation about the study on American teacher professional development in the context of professional learning community, and a holistic research framework is constructed which is based on the discussion of the following questions: what is the history of American teacher professional development in the background of professional learning community? What's the theoretical foundation of professional learning community's promoting American teacher professional development? How does professional learning community promote American teacher professional development? What are the strengths and limitations of professional learning community's promoting American teacher professional development? What enlightenment can we draw from this discussion? The beginning of this dissertation is preface, which mainly includes the purpose of this dissertation, the literature review, the definitions of concerned concepts and so on. The main body of this dissertation is divided into four parts, the first part is American teacher professional development in the background of professional learning community from historical perspective; next, it's the theoretical foundation of professional learning community's promoting American teacher professional development; the third part is on discussion of the implementation of professional learning community's promoting American teacher professional development; finally, it's about the strengths and limitations of professional learning community's promoting American teacher professional development, and there are some suggestions as well.