An Investigation On The Teaching Reflections Of English Teachers In Rural Junior High Schools

The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2011 edition and 2022edition)reinforces new requirements on teachers’ teaching reflection.Reflective teaching is seen as a basic skill possessed by junior high school English teachers.Teaching reflection is the basis for teachers’ growth,an important factor affecting their professional development.However,the current research on teaching reflection mostly focused on English teachers in universities and high schools.The aspects of these researches mostly are on the importance of teaching reflection and the effective ways of teaching reflection.Relatively few studies involving English teachers’ teaching reflection in junior high schools are done.A big gap about the situation of teachers’ teaching reflection exists between in rural areas and in urban areas.It is urgent to investigate the current situation of junior high school English teachers’ teaching reflection in rural areas.Therefore,based on the six dimensions of teaching reflection,the research investigates and analyzes the teaching reflection of rural junior high school English teachers in X County of Hainan Province by using the questionnaire,the interview and the text analysis to answer the following two questions:(1)What are the problems in the teaching reflection of English teachers in Hainan rural junior high schools?(2)What are the factors that influence the teaching reflection of English teachers in rural junior middle schools?In this study,50 rural junior high school English teachers in the county were selected as the subjects of the questionnaire and eight of them were selected as the interviewees to analyze the situation of teaching reflection from six aspects: theoretical knowledge and literacy of teaching reflection,the awareness and practice,the content,the approach,the effect and the influencing factors of teaching reflection.Some recording of teaching reflections were selected.These recording were translated into English words in this paper to be analyzed.Through the analysis,this study found that rural English teachers have the following problems in teaching reflection:(1)In terms of the theoretical foundation of teaching reflection,teachers’ theoretical foundation is very weak.(2)In terms of the content of teaching reflection,teachers emphasize quantity rather than quality.They mainly pay attention to students’ classroom performance and the achievement of teaching goals.(3)In regard to the approach of teaching reflection,teachers lack effective approaches of reflection and often adopt a single method,which leads to low effectiveness of teaching reflection.(4)Teachers often adopt post-class reflection,which is not timely.It causes them to lack initiative and conscientiousness to reflect.(5)Teachers have not comprehensive understanding about teaching reflection.Based on the results of the teachers’ questionnaires and interviews,the factors that affect rural junior high school English teachers’ teaching reflection are as follows:(1)Teachers lack theoretical foundation and related scientific guidance to reflect on their teaching.(2)Rural English teachers still hold traditional education concepts.(3)Teachers have not enough time and energy because of their heavy teaching tasks and teaching pressure.(4)Schools fail to provide teachers with a good environment for reflection.Finally,according to the above problems and factors affecting teachers’ reflection of English teachers in rural junior high school,relevant teaching suggestions are given for English teachers and schools.(1)Teachers should strengthen their learning of theoretical basics and apply teaching theories to their teaching reflection content to improve the quality of reflection.(2)Teachers should reflect in time by insisting on writing teaching reflection.When reflecting,the theory and practice should be combined.(3)Teachers should flexibly apply a variety of teaching reflection methods according to the specific conditions of teaching to improve the effect of reflection.(4)Schools should create a good environment for English teachers to reflect and establish a reflection management mechanism to increase the enthusiasm of English teachers in teaching reflection.Based on these suggestions,we hope to provide the new concept of teaching reflection as well as improve the effects of teaching reflection for English teachers in rural junior high schools in Hainan Province.