A Case Study On The Junior High School English Teacher’s Reflection In Teaching Practice Based On Key Competencies

The current educational reform focuses on cultivating and developing students’ Key Competencies(KC)in Chinese educational systems,during which the teachers play a vital role in the reform process.Teachers’ self-growth is closely related to the contemporary educational vision,which requires teachers’ reflection for their professional development.In the new era of developing KC for sustainable development in primary and secondary education,a considerable amount of literature has been published on the role of KC.However,researchers have not treated teachers’ reflection in much detail and few researchers have been able to draw on any systematic research into the relationship between the KC and the teachers’ reflection.Therefore,this study aims to solve this problem by conducting a case study in a key junior high school in Shenyang.Four English teachers were invited to participate in this study.Four dimensions of the English subject key competencies which contain language competence,thinking quality,cultural awareness,and learning ability are constructed to define the structure of the teachers’ reflection.It refers to the research questions from the following three aspects:1.The problems existing in English teachers’ teaching reflection;2.The causes that influenced English teachers’ reflection in the context of developing key competencies in junior high school;3.The ways that English teachers enhance their reflection development based on the requirement of developing key competencies in junior high school.-Interview,reflective journals and questionnaire are used for data collection.The researcher read the interview records,reflection journals and analyzed the data of questionnaires with SPSS.The problems of these four teachers’ teaching reflection are as follows: first,teachers are not closely integrated with the English subject key competencies in teaching reflection,especially lacking the training of thinking quality,cultural awareness and learning ability;the second is that teachers’ understanding of the English subject key competencies is not deep enough;the third is the ways of teachers’ teaching reflection stays at experience summary and reflection does not meet the need to further develop students’ key competencies.There are many factors affecting the teachers’ teaching reflection based on the background of key competencies,such as teachers’ knowledge level,teaching experience,teachers’ lack relevant training,and the heavy burden of teaching.The ways that English teachers promote their reflection development based on the background of key competencies: the first is that teachers can reflect on teaching through case teaching reflection;the second is that teachers need to continuously learn and update theoretical knowledge,including professional knowledge and educational theories;the third is that schools should pay attention to the development and needs of teachers’ teaching reflection under the English subject key competencies and improve the teaching reflection evaluation system.