A Study Of Young College-English Teacher Learning From The Perspective Of Educational Ecology

Since 21 st Century,college-English teaching in China has gone through an unusual development history.Relevant authorities have set up a series of policies on college-English teaching reform,and also put forward higher requirements for college-English teachers’ quality.As the backbone of the college-English teacher team,young teachers’ professional development has attracted much attention.Yet,young college-English teacher development,in China,has been unsatisfactory and faced prominent contradictions in their living environment.Thus,the study of current situation of young college-English teacher learning is conducive to further promoting their professional development.In today’s society,“teacher education” is facing challenges and changes.Influenced by lifelong education and curriculum reform,teacher learning has become a hot topic after normal education,teacher training and teacher education.Its research has shown a shift from knowledge orientation and practice orientation to ecology orientation.At present,studies of teacher learning overseas have become a dynamic field in western education research.However,in China,teacher learning studies are still in an early stage and have not become an independent research field.Although research regarding teacher learning has attracted greater attention in recent years,fewer empirical studies have been launched in multivariate analysis of teacher learning and teacher-environment interaction.Besides,studies taking young college-English teachers as subjects are especially scare.Thus,the present study investigates young college-English teacher learning situation from the perspective of Educational Ecology.It aims to explore the following three questions:1.What fundamental factors make up the ecological system of young college-English teacher learning?2.What about the quality of current young college-English teacher learning ecology?3.Are there any differences in learning among young college-English teachers with different personal background?The methods adopted in present study are literature research and questionnaire survey.The 278 college-English teachers(186 young teachers)were randomly sampled via the website www.wjx.cn from some colleges in China.The instruments are “the questionnaire of college-English teacher learning from the perspective of educational ecology” and SPSS 20.0 statistical software.This paper mainly consists of two parts: the first part explains the relevant theories of “teacher learning” and “educational ecology” as well as the research assumptions;the second part presents the current situation of young college-English teacher learning ecology through the questionnaire.The comparison of theoretical assumptions and survey results will help identify problems and then provide inspiration.In the first part,the paper firstly demonstrates the background and significance of the study.Then,define the concepts of “teacher learning” and “young college-English teachers”,review relevant studies abroad and in China on teacher learning systematically and finally form the literature review.According to Educational Ecology Theory,“Young College-English Teacher Learning Analytical Framework under Educational Ecology Perspective” is constructed which provides research assumptions and questionnaire dimensions for the present study.It unfolds the ideal learning situation of young college-English teachers from 5 aspects: learning awareness,content,method,motivation and environment.In the second part,the present study was conducted by random questionnaire to understand the quality of current young college-English teacher learning ecology from the above 5 aspects.By comparing survey results with theoretical assumptions,this paper reveals the problems existed in young college-English teacher learning ecology,which offers reliable information to the study of college-English teacher learning in China.According to the literature research,the ecological system of young college-English teacher learning,in the present study,includes 5 fundamental factors:learning awareness,learning content,learning method,learning motivation and learning environment.Findings based on the questionnaire survey are as follows:(1)Youngcollege-English teachers have a better understanding of the connotation of teacher learning.They have strong learning desire and clear awareness of initiative learning.(2)The contents of young college-English teacher learning are relatively abundant,which are no longer limited to the acquisition of teaching knowledge.They start to pay attention to teaching reflection and innovation,but still rely on obtaining teaching skills and lack research consciousness.(3)The methods of young college-English teacher learning are diversified,dominated by autonomous learning,cooperative learning as well as online learning.They break traditional learning methods,namely passive training,but their learning still lacks systematicness and guidance.(4)Young college-English teachers have explicit learning motivation,mainly including the motivation of meeting students’ learning demand and also including the motivation of self-learning,namely improving teaching level and developing unique teaching style.(5)As to learning environment,most young college-English teachers believe that schools have provided lots of learning opportunities for them,but expert instruction,school guidance and effective evaluation still need to be improved.(6)There are significant differences of young college-English teacher learning in the variables of gender,age,academic qualification and college types.In gender,female teachers have better learning environment than male teachers;in age,young teachers’ learning content is relatively single and learning environment is worse,but they have stronger motivation in learning than elderly teachers;in academic qualification,young college-English teachers with high-level education are taking more diversified learning methods but have a lower quality of learning situation in learning awareness,content,motivation and environment;in college types,young college-English teachers from key and ordinary universities hold more learning methods than those from colleges.The present study reveals that current overall quality of young college-English teacher learning ecology is relatively good,but there are still some problems such as inconsistence between cognition and demand,and discordance between self-development and environment support.Thus,this paper proposes some suggestions for young college-English teachers’ sustainable learning from theperspective of educational ecology.(1)It is advisable to make good use of the strong learning desire and demand of young college-English teachers and create more opportunities for their autonomous learning so that teachers’ learning initiative can be fully stimulated.(2)Attention needs to be paid to the hierarchy and diversity of young college-English teachers’ learning content.Meanwhile,the administrators should endeavor to improve teachers’ knowledge structure and ability structure,and advocate the combination of teaching,studying and learning to promote the ecological development of young college-English teachers’ overall quality.(3)More flexible and diversified learning methods which suit young college-English teachers’ development demand needs to be created.Policymakers should actively promote teachers’ autonomous learning,inquiry learning and cooperative learning,and also offer systematic and instructive learning training for them.(4)Young college-English teachers’ self-demand for learning should be emphasized and stimulated.Also,sufficient institutional support and policy guarantee are needed in order to make teachers learn out of internal consciousness but not just external drive.(5)Colleges shall optimize young college-English teachers’ learning environment and establish a reasonable and effective school leadership and management by relying on social connections.Besides,a reasonable evaluation and incentive mechanism of learning should be established.(6)The diversity and difference of teachers’ learning demand deserve adequate respect.Meanwhile,a wide variety of learning guiding strategies should be adopted for teachers from different regions,possess different academic qualification and are in different ages.The present study is launched to explore the current situation of Chinese young college-English teacher learning ecology tentatively,and there are certain limitations.It is expected to provide useful implications for promoting young college-English teachers’ real “learning” and future studies.