An Alumni Survey On Teacher Development Of English Major Postgraduates

Alumni survey has sprung up all over the world since 1920 s, and studies of alumni from universities have increased both domestic and abroad.This study find out the self-evaluation of teacher development levels of postgraduate alumni. It is accomplished by means of questionnaire and interview of graduate alumni who became English teachers after graduation. The questionnaire consists of six parts: personal information, English knowledge and skills, Teaching knowledge and skills, Classroom management, Creativity and Research ability, and problems alumni are facing with in the process of Teacher development. The subjects of this thesis are 117 English major alumni graduated from master’s program of a normal university between 2006 and 2010. The data collected from the questionnaire are processed by SPSS 19.0, besides, an open-ended interview was conducted among 30 alumni, and their answers had been transcribed and analyzed by the author to provide triangulation for research questions.The study has following findings: 1) Taken as a whole, alumni are satisfied with their teacher development, especially with fundamental knowledge and skills and classroom management; 2) According to the alumni, heavy working load and little support from universities and government are the biggest problems blocking their teacher development; 3) There is no significant difference between male and female participants, but female alumni are less competent in research abilities and creative thinking; 4) Most of the alumni are satisfied with their graduate education, but they hold the view that there is still room for improvement, such as in internship arrangement, curriculum selection systems, courses on British and American cultures, and research methodology.This study is significant in providing reliable feedbacks and support for the improvement of postgraduate education. More specifically, it can help graduate students to adjust their postgraduate education.