A Case Study Of Experienced College English Teachers’ Transformative Learning In Learning Community

College English Teaching Guidelines(2020)set new goals and requirements for college English teaching.The quality of teaching depends on the professional quality of teachers.As the mainstay of college English teachers,experienced college English teachers are confronted with the challenge in achieving the overall improvement of“educational literacy,discipline literacy,teaching literacy,scientific research literacy and information literacy”.Meanwhile,teachers’ learning community is found a powerful platform for teachers’ development.Constructing teacher learning community to create a favorable environment for teacher development has received considerable attention among researchers.How to take advantage of the learning community,a teacher learning platform generally acknowledged by scholars,to facilitate the cognitive transformations and perspective update of experienced college English teachers,is of great significance in promoting the teachers to change their learning style,break through their development dilemma,and then improve the quality of college English teaching.In this context,under the guidance of transformative learning theory from the critical perspective,this study selected three experienced college English teachers from a learning community in the target university as research objects for qualitative case study.This study answers the following two questions:1.In what aspects have the experienced college English teachers realized transformative learning in learning community?2.What were the factors that influenced the experienced college English teachers’ transformative learning in learning community?Through tracking the participants’ learning activities in learning community and analyzing the research data from basic information questionnaires,concept maps,observations and interviews,this study draws the following two conclusions:Firstly,three experienced college English teachers have mainly achieved transformative learning under the context of learning community in three aspects:teaching,scientific research and teacher identity.Their transformative learning involves both renewal of cognitive perspectives and the transformation of professional practices.Secondly,in the context of learning communities,the transformative learning of experienced college English teachers is under the influence of three aspects: personal,interpersonal and contextual.The teachers’ inquiry attitude towards teaching or research has both a positive and hindering effect on their transformative learning.Collective collaboration and deprivatized experience sharing among community members are positively related to the cognitive transformation of participating teachers.Among environmental factors,the evaluation system of the target university and empowerment in the learning community have also shown a positive role for the participants’ transformative learning.This study is of practical implications for the learning and professional development of experienced college English teachers.It affirms the positive effect of learning community in supporting the transformative learning of experienced college English teachers.The transformative learning has proved of practical influence in improving experienced college English teachers’ professional competence.The study provides reference for creating a good learning atmosphere suitable for cultivating transformative learning and facilitating the professional development of experienced teachers.