Exploring Teacher Learning Community For Teachers’Professional Development

At the beginning of new century, China initiated a new round of educational reform in primary and middle school. Later in 2004 new English curriculum reform came to the high school. In the context of the reforms of foreign language teaching, increasingly important attention has been drawn to teacher professional development, for it has been proved that it is the teacher who holds the key to educational reform (Wu,2007). Teachers’growth and development happens mostly in the school environment, so drawing the support and promotion from Teacher Learning Community (TLC) is one of effective strategies and ways to develop EFL teachers’thinking and practice. In China, English Teaching and Research Group (ETRG) at schools is a teacher learning community for all English teachers (Yang,2009). This thesis aims to obtain a better understanding of the high school English teacher learning community in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and how teacher learning community contributes to high school English teachers’professional development. Specifically three sub-questions attempt to be answered in this study:(1) What is the present situation of teacher learning community among English teachers in high schools in Xinjiang? (2) How does teacher learning community have impacts on teacher professional development? (3) What are the existing problems of English teachers learning community?The study was conducted among six English teachers and two group leaders of two high schools in Xinjiang. The study adopted qualitative-interpretive approach, so the main method adopted in the study is ethnography. Narrative inquiry, case study, observation and interview are also used for data collection. The data collected mainly came from teacher’interviews, classroom observations, teachers’reflection journals, meetings of ETRG and conversations with teachers for a period of over 8 months.Based on the theories of social constructivism and community of practice, the study firstly attempts to investigate the present situation of ETRG, which mostly are collective lesson planning, classroom observation including public lessons and regular lessons, mentoring between expert teachers and novice teachers, teacher support groups, interscholastic communications and exchange visits. Based on these results this study goes on to explore the impact that teacher learning community may bring on teachers’ understanding of teaching profession, change of professional qualities, and the transformation about their affective states. The ending of this study analyses the existing problems of present collaborative mechanisms and provides countermeasures and suggestions for TLC.