A Study On Young Senior High School English Teachers’ Beliefs About Students’ Thinking Qualities Cultivation

With the deepening of research on foreign language teaching and English educational reform,the significant role of teachers in language teaching has been widely recognized,and the research on teachers’ beliefs has become an important part in the field of language education.As the main force of English teacher team,young English teachers play an important role in English educational reform.In 2018,the new version of National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2017 Edition)was published,and thinking qualities was explicitly listed as one of the curriculum goals of English subject for the first time,which has received widespread attention.However,there is a lack of research on the young English teachers’ beliefs with respect to students’ thinking qualities cultivation.In order to enrich the relevant research on teachers’ beliefs and give full play to the guiding role of teachers’ beliefs in the cultivation of students’ thinking qualities,this study,taking an integrated perspective of social cognitive theory and complexity theory,combined with the new version of National English Curriculum Standards(2017 Edition),is designed to explore the young senior high school English teachers’ beliefs about cultivating students’ thinking qualities.This study hypothesizes that young English teachers’ beliefs in developing students’ thinking qualities are influenced by both subjective cognition and social culture,and that teachers’ beliefs,classroom practices and teaching context are collectively regarded as a complex system,the three of which interact and correlate with each other in a dynamic way.This study is designed to answer the following three questions: 1.What are the young senior high school English teachers’ personal beliefs about students’ thinking qualities cultivation? 2.How do the young senior high school English teachers realize their beliefs in developing students’ thinking qualities in their classroom teaching practices? 3.What are the contextual factors that influence the young senior high school English teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices in students’ thinking qualities cultivation? To answer the three questions,this study adopts qualitative research methods and conducts a case study of three young English teachers in a key senior high school in Henan Province.Data are collected and analyzed through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations.The findings are as follows: 1.The three young senior high school English teachers hold different beliefs about the conceptions and values of thinking qualities,as well as the teaching goals,teaching approaches and teachers’ roles in students’ thinking qualities cultivation.These beliefs are interrelated and interact with each other,which constitute the teachers’ complex thinking teaching belief system.2.The three young senior high school English teachers’ beliefs about cultivating students’ thinking qualities are reflected in classroom teaching practices,but the emphases are different.They cultivate students’ thinking qualities mainly through teacher questioning,teacher-student interaction and group discussion.Teachers’ beliefs about cultivating students’ thinking qualities have a direct impact on classroom teaching,and also determine the design of teaching methods and teaching activities.3.There are three dimensions of contextual factors that impact the cultivation of students’ thinking qualities of young English teachers in senior high school:micro-classroom context(including teachers,students,teaching materials and classroom time);meso-school context(including school authorities and colleagues);macro-society context(including the new National English Curriculum Standards and examination-oriented evaluation system).These contextual factors play facilitating or limiting roles in young senior high school English teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices of students’ thinking qualities cultivation.