A Study On EFL Teacher’s Learning Power In Junior Middle Schools

The Ministry of Education’s Plan for Stronger Teachers in Basic Education in the New Era(2022)emphasized the importance of comprehensively improving teachers’ teaching quality and competence and building a high-quality teaching force.As for teacher’s learning power,it is a key competence that teachers should have nowadays.However,problems with teacher learning have led to some teachers’ lack of learning power,which has become a bottleneck restricting teachers’ development.Therefore,this study aims to determine the current situation of EFL teachers’ learning power in junior middle schools,tries to find out the influencing factors and existing problems.Based on the theoretical analysis,the researcher puts forward some feasible suggestions for improving EFL teachers’ learning power.Based on the theory of constructivism,learning organization and adult learning,the researcher investigated 258 EFL teachers in junior middle schools from Hezhou City in Guangxi,and this study aims to answer the following two questions:(1)What is the status quo of EFL teachers’ learning power in junior middle schools of Hezhou City?(2)What are the factors affecting EFL teachers’ learning power in junior middle schools of Hezhou City? This study adopts a mixed approach with quantitative and qualitative methods.The quantitative research tool of this study is the “Questionnaire of Junior Middle School EFL Teacher’s Learning Power”.And the qualitative research tool of this study is semi-structured interview.Four EFL teachers are selected as the interviewees.The results show that:(1)EFL teachers’ learning power in junior middle school is at a medium to high level.Among them,the scores of each sub-dimension rank as follows:SP scores the highest;TP is the second,followed by RP,WP,and EP.In terms of gender,age,years of teaching,educational background,and professional titles,there is no significant difference among the various variables.Moreover,regarding the school area and the expenditure teachers have spent within half a year,there are some significant differences in these two dimensions.(2)The researcher identified the factors that affect the learning power of junior middle school EFL teachers mainly include three aspects:First,teacher-related factors include EFL teacher’s motivation,family situation,and learning styles.The organizational factors consist of the teaching evaluation system,learning community organization,and support from the school.The social-cultural factors mainly include educational policies such as life-long learning value and burden reduction.Based on the results of the study,the researcher gives suggestions on how to improve the learning power of junior middle school EFL teachers from three aspects.For EFL teachers,they should continuously strengthen their intrinsic motivation,promoting self-learning,setting up clear learning plans and identifying learning objectives.Enhancing learning management skills,developing a sense of innovation,and promoting reflective power are also effective strategies for EFL teachers to make better development in learning.For schools,a collaborative community culture should be created;a diversified evaluation mechanism and cooperative learning and working atmosphere should be encouraged and established.For relevant administrative departments,teacher learning is encouraged to be promoted and burden reduction policies are also required to be implemented.