Research On Professional Development For English Teachers In Former Affiliated Middle Schools Of State-owned Enterprises

Since the1980s, cultivating high quality teachers has become a common pursuit of the world education. With the initiation of the new curriculum reform in China, the research has aroused more and more attentions. The state-owned enterprises used to have a lot of affiliated schools. They played a positive role in China’s basic education. However, professional development of teachers in these schools was hindered by the fact that they were not guided by the government education bureaus. Since1995, almost all the afflicted middle schools controlled by state-owned enterprises have been transferred into educational system. But up to now no investigation about the status quo of English teachers’ professional development from this group of schools in China has been conducted. This thesis uses those English teachers as research objects and studies their state of professional development.The research selects40English teachers from three former affiliated middle schools of stated-owned enterprises. The objectives of the research include six aspects involved in teachers’ professional development in these schools. The six aspects are:their individual information related to teacher qualification, their teaching pressure and educational belief, their English knowledge&skills, their teaching practice&research, their professional training and their attitude toward professional development.The results are as follows.(1) Most teachers are middle aged. Quite a number of teachers have college diploma but the number of master’s degree owners is relatively small. Fifty percent of the teachers have been awarded with the medium professional title and12.5%with senior professional title.(2) Generally these teachers felt great pressure in their work. Though most of them have a steadfast educational ideal, sometimes they still feel at a loss.(3) The general English teaching level is relatively low and no outstanding performance has been observed.(4) The teachers in this type of school lack adequate research ability and do not have enough training opportunities.(5) Ninety percent of the English teachers in this type of school are willing to participate in professional education or training if there is an opportunity. It is obvious that there are obstacles on the road for improving these English teachers’professional development.According to the problems found from the survey, some suggestions are put forward by the present author. Schools should support teachers from both spirit and materials. Teachers themselves should improve education concept, enhance the professional development consciousness, enrich related theoretical knowledge, master great practical techniques and skills, and strengthen their research ability.Since the study is carried out on a small scale, a number of relevant issues remain to be further discussed and investigated.