An Investigation Of The Present Teaching Practice Situation Of The Master Of English Education

From the year of 2005, the Chinese Ministry of Education has greatly promotedthe professional master’s degree in order to train the advanced personnel who possesspractical teaching skills and who are able to do independent research. Compared withan academic master’s degree, the professional master’s degree pays more attention tothe application and practicality of knowledge, aiming to meet the needs of the society.The focus of the professional master of education degree is to train the teachers whoare qualified to teach at the middle schools and who are expected to be the main forceof the Chinese middle-school education system. By 2008, degree programs for themaster of education degree had been set up in 57 universities in China, including mostwell known normal universities in China; and that has attracted broad attention of thecolleges and universities in China. Due to the newness of the profession master ofeducation degree and different attitudes toward it, some problems inevitably cameinto existence. One of the most obvious problems is that teaching practice has notbeen taken seriously. Therefore, the reformation of the present teaching practice isimperative so as to meet the needs of the Chinese higher education and middle schoolteachers’training.Based on the theories of philosophy, psychology and pedagogy, the introduction tothis thesis summarizes three aspects of current research about teaching practice inChina and abroad: theory, practice mode and supervision and evaluation. Thequestionnaire is adopted, and meantime interview and investigation are carried out.Taking 231 graduates with a master of English education degree as research subjects,the results of this thesis identifies the strengths and weakness of present teachingpractice in universities, attempts to analyze the reasons and gives some suggestions.The results of this study show that serious problems in teaching practice, which lie inthe short time, fewer lessons, and simple mode. Moreover, students get less help fromthe instructive teachers or the practice schools. With little supervision, the effect ofteaching practice cannot get reasonable guaranteed. In order to solve these problems,this thesis attempts to find some reasons for them from the current system of the professional master of English education degree, the setup of teaching practice, theuniversities and students themselves etc. These results may offer some suggestions forfuture research.