A Dynamic Study On Professional Identity Of The Students Of The Full-time English Education Masters Program

The establishment of full-time Education Master professional degree initiates the new cultivating mode of secondary school teachers. It is characterized by the goal of cultivating high-level basic education teachers, cooperative training mode of university mentor and high school mentor, and three issued certifications (postgraduate diploma, professional degree's diploma and teacher's certification), which attracts more and more students'attention. The establishment of full-time Education master professional degree has solved the employment problem to some extent; however, the program is still at the exploratory stage and lacks relevant training mode for reference, and there are still problems, one of which is the low professional identity of full-time Education Master candidates. As a kind of Education Master degree, full-time English Education Master candidates'professional identity has become one of the most common topics due to its particularity.The main purpose of this study was to investigate the present state of the professional identity of full-time English Education Master candidates, and probed into the various influencing factors of professional identity and gathered the information about how English reform will influence English Education Master candidates' professional identity. The research took all the English Education Master candidates in the first and second grade of Shaanxi Normal University as research subjects. A complementary research method was exploited in this study, combing with the quantitative method (a questionnaire) and qualitative method (semi-structure interview). Based on the methodology used in measuring perceptions and beliefs about the teaching profession and the inner experience of research objectives, this study identified the current situation and influencing factors of professional identity from four sub-dimensions of professional identity, namely, professional cognition, professional emotion, professional behavior, and professional evaluation. Data analysis about the questionnaire was implemented by SPSS 16.0, while the influencing factors of professional identity and the influence of English reform was discussed by using categorization.The findings indicated that the overall level of professional identity of full-time Education Master candidates is relatively high, and the four sub-dimensions showed different degrees; the degree of sub-dimensions of professional emotion and professional cognition is relatively low compared with the high level of professional behavior and professional evaluation. Furthermore, significant differences of professional identity degree in grade, working experience, bachelor degree, interdisciplinary and source of students are also observed. The study also found that both the two aspects (personal factors and external factors) contribute towards the development of full-time English Education Master candidates' professional identity. and the external factors which include curriculum design, the teaching practicum, mentors and English reform in College Entrance Examination exert a greater influence on the construction process of professional identity.Based on the research findings and conclusions above, proposals are then put forward for the purpose of enhancing the level of full-time English Education Master candidates' professional identity, thus to provide some implications for the continual enhancement of the full-time Education Master program and some kind of training. The author provided some suggestions for cultivating institutions and students respectively. The cultivating institutions of full-time English Education Master professional degree ought to optimize and perfect the relevant training mode and promote the propaganda of enrollment advertisement vigorously. Furthermore, the training institutions should adopt various methods to increase English Education Master students' passion of English teaching, and improve the curriculum design, teaching practicum, enhancement on the more communication between the university mentors and full-time English Education Master candidates so as to enhance the level of their professional identity internally and externally. Additionally, full-time English Education Master candidates should formulate the reasonable plan to optimize their knowledge structure and improve their overall skills and abilities by themselves for the purpose of integration into the English teaching better under the new circumstance of English reform in College Entrance Examination.