An Investigation Into Teachers’ Professional Development In Secondary Vocational Schools

Since the1980s, the research on teachers’ professional development has been animportant area of educational research, and its achievements are quite fruitful. Butthere are few related researches focusing on secondary vocational schools, and theresearches on the English teachers’ professional development in secondary vocationalschools are even rarer. At present, along with the extensive development of secondaryvocational English teaching reform, there are higher requirements for the Englishteachers’ professional quality. However, it can’t be denied that the current status ofsecondary vocational English teachers’ professional development in China is notoptimistic. The reality shows that the situation seems hard to meet the requirementsfor the training objectives of secondary vocational talents and the needs of secondaryvocational English teaching reform and development. Therefore, it is essential andurgent to promote the English teachers’ professional development in secondaryvocational schools. Thus, based on the investigation into the English teachers of Hezesecondary vocational schools in Shandong Province, this study intends to investigatethe present situations of English teachers’ professional development in secondaryvocational schools. The existing problems and the influencing factors are analyzed soas to further explore the proposals and suggestions for promoting English teachers’professional development in secondary vocational schools. The study aims to putforward some feasible suggestions, which can optimize the English teaching staff andimprove the English teaching quality in secondary vocational schools.This study is based on the theory of teachers’ professional development, actionresearch theory and lifelong learning theory. Literature review, questionnaires,interviews and data analysis are employed as the research methods. Fifty-five Englishteachers in five secondary vocational schools of Heze are chosen as the subjects of thequestionnaire and interviews. The investigation focuses on the basic situation,educational belief, professional knowledge, as well as professional competence of theteachers. The requirements, awareness and approaches for self-development are also investigated. The questionnaires are distributed to fifty-five English teachers and allof the questionnaires are collected and proved to be valid, so the effective rate is100%. The data are analyzed by using percentage methods and the returnedquestionnaires can be referred to as rather representative.Through the investigation and data analysis, this study finds that: first, for theteacher team in Heze secondary vocational schools, sex ratio, title structure, age andseniority structure and teachers’ professional structure are not reasonable. So thecareer satisfaction is relatively low and stableness is poor. Second, the teachers’awareness for self-development is relatively weak, their educational philosophy isrelatively backward, and their professional knowledge is deficient. Thus, theirprofessional competence needs to be improved and their burnout is serious. Third,both external factors and teachers’ personal factors affect English teachers’professional development in secondary vocational schools. The external factorsinclude that the secondary vocational education is still not well recognized in society,the lack of teaching resources is evident and teacher training system is still imperfect.Due to the poor quality of students and the lack of training opportunities, the teachingenvironment is not satisfactory. Besides, pressures from family and work stress andthe incomplete evaluation system also interfere with the healthy professionaldevelopment of the teachers. As for the teachers’ personal factors, they include thelack of professional ideals and beliefs, the lack of professional identity, the lack ofteaching accomplishment and professional happiness and the lack of awareness ofautonomous learning.The study holds that English teachers’ professional development in secondaryvocational schools is restricted by their own factors, as well as external factors of theschool and society. Thus, to prompt the professional development level and improveEnglish education in secondary vocational schools, we should make great effort fromboth internal and external perspectives. To solve the problems, the followingsuggestions are put forward. Firstly, individual teachers should foster awareness ofself-development and develop their personal professional development plan. Theteachers should try to, relieve burnout, renew their concepts of education, improve their professional knowledge and professional competence through lifelong learningand action research so as to improve their professional development levelcontinuously. Secondly, the school should establish the concept of teachers’professional development, and create a harmonious campus culture environment.They should also try to, carry out the school-based training for teachers’ professionaldevelopment, establish cooperative learning organization and promote thedevelopment of teachers’ professional competence evaluation system, in order toguarantee that teachers can get continued development. Finally, the society shouldstrengthen the construction of English teachers team, increase the investment toimprove the secondary vocational school conditions effectively. In this way, thesecondary education with striking characteristics and clear aims, as well as withqualified teachers can be improved and ensured.It is believed that to some extent, the present study can not only enrich the theoryof teachers’ professional development, but can also provide meaningful enlightenmentfor vocational education authorities who are responsible for making policies ofteachers’ professional development.