A Study On Professional Development Of English Teachers In Secondary Vocational Schools

In recent years,with the rapid development and transformation of market economy in our country,skilled talents are in great demand,which provides great opportunities for the development of secondary vocational schools.Therefore,the secondary vocational education has attracted much attention from the public,of which the importance has also been emphasized by the Chinese government.In the National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan Outline(2010-2020),the decision to develop vocational education vigorously has been explicitly made.The development of vocational education is closely related to teachers' quality.It is impossible to have a high quality education without teachers of high levels.Therefore,it is urgent to promote the development of secondary vocational teachers.Along with the social life and the increasing economic globalization,the secondary vocational school students can adapt better to the needs of the international labor market if they could master certain basic knowledge of English and the elementary skills,which requires more for English teachers in secondary vocational school.They should not only have solid professional knowledge of English,but also have certain professional skills;In addition,they should connect English with students' major in a correct way.However,as for most of English teachers in the secondary vocational schools,they only know something they acquired from their own teachers,lacking the corresponding professional background knowledge.It is quite hard for them to adapt to the request of training targets and the needs of secondary vocational English teaching reform and development.Therefore,it is imperative to pay attention to promoting professional development of English teachers in secondary vocational schools.Based on the above reasons,this study takes the city of Qingdao in Shandong Province as an example,which aims to understand the status of English teacher professional development in secondary vocational schools and analyzes the existing problems and its influencing factors.Through analysis and discussion,the study tries to put forward some referential suggestions which can promote the development of secondary vocational education and improve the quality of secondary vocational English teaching.This study is based on lifelong learning theory,action research theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.The research instruments include questionnaire and interview.The subjects of the research are 205 English teachers who are chosen from the secondary schools of Qingdao.The investigation focuses on their basic situation,professional philosophy and ethics,professional knowledge and professional ability and their training need for professional development.To have a better understanding of the current situation of the secondary schools of Qingdao,6 teachers from different schools and at various ages have been interviewed.In this study,205 questionnaires have been given out,of which 201 were collected,accounting for 98.05%.The data collected was analyzed by percentage calculation method.Through the investigation and data analysis,the findings of this study are as follows: male teachers are much fewer than female teachers,thus,the gender structure is imbalance;young English teachers accounts for little proportion;age structure and title structure are not reasonable;some teachers can't master information technology,their teaching evaluation and reflection abilities await improvement;most teachers think that training time and contents are unreasonable.To solve these problems,the causes and factors that hamper the professional development of teachers have been analyzed and the following suggestions are put forward from the perspectives of the teachers themselves,the school,and the educational administration department.Firstly,the teachers should establish the consciousness of self-development and develop their plans for personal professional development.They should also try to relieve job burnout,strengthen independent learning and integrate information technology into teaching.Secondly,the school should establish the concept of teacher professional development,reflect the teaching activities,carry out the school-based training for teacher professional development,and reform the evaluation system for teachers.Finally,the education administration should strengthen the teaching staff construction of English teachers,change the unreasonable structures,and increase the investment to improve the conditions and environment of secondary vocational schools.At the same time,the education administration should also explore different levels of training models for English teachers,so that the teachers can acquire better and faster professional development.