Research On The Reform Of American Teacher Professionalization In The 1980s And 1990s

Reform is the eternal theme of American education,teacher education as well.In the second half of the 20 th century,in order to improve the overall level of teachers and guarantee the quality of school education,the United States carried out a continuous reform of teacher education with the theme of "professionalization." In this process,the 1980 s and 1990 s were a stage of reform with remarkable characteristics.While adjusting and continuing the process of teacher professionalization reform in the 1960 s and 1970 s,this stage also laid the foundation for the new teacher professionalization reform in the 21 st century.There are historical and realistic reasons for the reform of teacher professionalization in the 1980 s and 1990 s.On the one hand,with the development of basic education in the United States,the problem of poor quality of elementary and middle school teachers has gradually become prominent,which has aroused the general concern of the education system and the whole society;on the other hand,the new educational reforms that emerged in the early 1980 s put forward new requirements to build a team of high-level teachers.All sectors of society,including government departments,educational professional organizations,and non-governmental organizations,have successively issued reform proposals to strengthen the professional status of teachers.At the same time,the research results on the professionalization of teachers in the education theory community have increased attention to the reform of teacher education.These factors triggered the reform of the professionalization of teachers in the United States in the 1980 s and 1990 s.The main content of teacher professionalization reform in the 1980 s and 1990 s roughly includes three parts: concept,policy and practice.In terms of concept,the connotation of teacher professionalization and its realization approach have changed from focusing on the improvement of teachers’ salary to emphasizing the improvement of teachers’ teaching ability.In terms of policy,the federal government has been more active and proactive in participating in the reform of teacher professionalization.The Bush and Clinton administrations have formulated a series of bills and policies to accelerate the process of teachers’ professional development,and the state governments have also launched regional policy of teachers’ professionalization.Teacher professionalization policies have formed a multi-level policy system that includes federal and state.In practice,the reform of teacher professionalization in this period showed the characteristics of promoting the process of teacher professionalization by optimizing the professional standard system of teachers in different stages,standardizing and improving the teacher education activities in each link,so as to ensure the overall process of teacher professionalization.The teacher professionalization reform in the 1980 s and 1990 s has made some achievements.On the one hand,it has deepened and improved the theoretical research on teacher professionalization,and on the other hand,it has effectively improved the professionalization level and status of the American primary and secondary school teachers.The characteristics of the reform,such as focusing on the improvement of teachers’ professional(teaching)ability,the joint participation of multiple subjects,and the overall promotion of teacher professionalization in each stage through the construction of a whole-process professional standard system,are of practical significance to the acceleration of teacher professionalization reform in China.In the process of promoting teacher professionalization reform in our country,we should firstly strengthen the theoretical research and achieve the organic combination of theory and practice;secondly,we should form the reform pattern of multi-subject joint participation and effective cooperation;thirdly,we should take the establishment of scientific and comprehensive teacher professional standards as an important breakthrough of the reform.