On The Construction Of Junior Middle School English Teachers’ Professional Learning Community From The Perspective Of Activity Theory

Strengthening the construction of the teaching staff,promoting the professional development of teachers and improving the professional quality and teaching ability of teachers are complying with the requirements of the times.Teachers’ professional development plays a decisive role in realizing the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education.This research takes the junior middle school English teachers’ professional learning community as the research object from the perspective of activity theory and uses the qualitative case study to explore the construction of the professional learning community.The problems on the research are as follows: the problems encountered by the elements of activity theory in the process of building a community and the impact of building a community on the professional development of junior middle school English teachers.The junior middle school English teachers’ professional learning community is an open group organized voluntarily by English teachers with common values and committed to improving teachers’ teaching and students’ learning.The elements of the activity theory are conductive to understand that the subject acts on the object through the intermediate instruments.It plays a scaffolding role in analyzing the situation of the professional learning community.After carrying out the peer observation and reflective journals,the qualitative case study draws date from interviews and observation at class.The result shows that the problems encountered by teachers mainly include the following aspects,such as the lack of learning time,the one-sidedness of teacher evaluation,the formalization of professional training,the difference between personal goals and school goals,the lack of power given to teachers by the school,the disconnect between theory and practice,and uneven division of labor leading to competition.The development of the community is conducive to the professional development of English teachers’ professional ethics,teaching research,teacher practice,and knowledge accomplishment.The construction of teachers’ professional learning community is an urgent practical problem and it requires many efforts.Based on the analysis of the case study,this article puts forward four suggestions for constructing a junior middle school English teachers’ professional learning community.Firstly,create a cooperative learning atmosphere and provide a cooperative basis for the development of the community.Secondly,give teachers support and solve problems for teachers.Thirdly,promote the cooperation between junior middle schools and universities to achieve mutual benefit and win-win among different teacher groups.Fourthly,broaden the channels of teachers’ teaching resources with the help of modern information technology.It provides a theoretical support for understanding the interaction between teachers’ professional learning and various elements in the activity system through this research.