A Case Study On Teaching Reflection Of English Teachers In The Rural Junior High School From The Perspective Of Constructivism

The new version of the English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education sets new requirements and places significant emphasis on teaching reflection for junior high school English teachers.Teachers need to form the knowledge,methods,beliefs,and attitudes necessary for teacher professional development through continuous reflection in practice.The level of professional development of rural junior high school English teachers needs to catch up due to the unbalanced distribution of educational resources.There is an urgent need for rural junior high school English teachers to improve professionalism through teaching reflection to promote the development of English teaching in rural areas in compulsory education.Therefore,the author probed in a case of teachers’ reflection as a feasible and effective way that facilitates the rural front-line English teachers’ self improvement in their professional competences in English teaching.This case study focuses on two rural front-line junior high school English teachers as research participants to observe and analyze their reflections on their classroom teaching practices and consequent teaching effects as a result of their reflection for self development as a rural English teacher.The study was designed and conducted through a qualitative approach which involved collecting and processing the data collected from their reflective journals,classroom performances and interviews,in order to answer the following questions:(1)What is the current status of teaching reflection among the two rural junior high school English teachers in Guizhou?(2)How does teaching reflection impact rural junior high school English teachers’ classroom teaching from the view of constructivism?(3)What are the strategies to promote teaching reflection among rural junior high school English teachers?The study has found:(1)The two rural English teachers did make efforts to improve their classroom teaching effects by taking reflection as a routine during their work.At the end of one-semester case study,they increased their ability to reflect on teaching comprehensively which correspondingly facilitated their classroom teaching effects and raised their awareness of autonomous improvement,even though the reflection content was mostly focused on teaching methods and evaluation,with less attention to teaching theory and self-awareness,which indicates there is still much to be desired in their theoretical knowledge and literacy of teaching reflection.(2)From the view of constructivism,teaching reflection has facilitated the rural junior high school English teachers’ classroom teaching and professionalism.Through reflection,teachers construct expertise,improve their teaching effectiveness and professional competence,which resulted in an increase of their students’ language skills and interest in learning English.(3)Based on constructivism and the new curriculum standards,rural junior high school English teachers should enhance their reflective awareness and master scientific reflective methods to reflect on teaching and students’ development,and become reflective teachers who can consciously construct subject knowledge,thinking and cultural qualities,and learning ability in order to cultivate students’ core literacy.This study could provide reference for rural junior high school English teachers to engage in reflective practice to enhance the professionalism of junior high school English teachers in rural areas to promote the development of education in rural areas.