| Since the the worldwide movement of teacher specialization in the 1980 s,it has become a consensus of many countries to ensure the quality of teachers and promote their development by establishing professional standards.In 2012,The Ministry of Education of China issued the Standards for Professional Teachers applicable to primary and secondary school teachers.At present,the standard has been running for over a decade.It achieved some results but the usability and the effectiveness are also questioned.In the1980 s,the United States began to design teachers’ professional standards and has rich experience in designing and implementation.Our own experience and that of other countries guide us how to revise our standards.Therefore,this study analyzes the "professional standards for teachers" from the perspective of country comparison and historical development comparison,weighting up the pros and cons of our current standard and its development mode and putting forward corresponding strategies.The contents are as follows.Firstly,by combing the texts of educational policies of the two countries from the embryonic period of teacher professional development in the mid-20 th century to the early 21 st century,this paper summarizes the core themes of the teacher standards in these two countries.Secondly,applying text analysis,this paper makes a comparison of the current teacher professional standards in China and America."Professional Standards for Primary School teachers" and "Professional Standards for middle school teachers " issued by the Ministry of Education in 2012 are our current standards.The current standard in the United States is the Model Core Teaching Standards which was developed by the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium(In TASC)in 2011.This study contrasts three aspects: teacher quality norms,text structure and language style of the standard and its implementation mode.Thirdly,on the basis of historical combing and current situation comparison,this research makes clear the strengths and weaknesses of our current standard and its development model.Finally,combining with the key theme of teachers team construction and the development trend of basic education,the improving suggestions are put forward.By combing the teacher standards in two countries,it was found that our country insists on goal orientation and explores teacher’s requirements with steady pace.Its content deepened and standardized gradually,forming a consistent main line.However,the deficiency was that the requirements related to teacher’s own development appeared late.From the perspective of text evolution,Chinese standards have gradually formed personal quality requirements for teachers but the problem lies in operability.From the implementation perspective,we are exploring effective ways of execution and not completely dependent on external means but the limitation lies in the incompatibility between the old and new standards.Through the comparative analysis of the current professional standards of teachers in two countries,we find that the advantages of Chinese standards lie in the following aspects: paying attention to collective education,attaching importance to the comprehensive development of students,valuing the self-identity and humanistic characteristics of teachers’ profession and retaining the space of independence of teachers’ profession.However,there are problems as follow: the lack of guidance on "how to treat knowledge";the absence of "teacher professional development knowledge";the standard does not form a systematic teacher quality core and ignores the characteristics of teacher development;the structure is flat and disarray;the generality and ambiguity of the text reduce its operability;the use of policy instruments is unitary;the implementation mode are unclear and the guidance and supervision are lacking.Therefore,it puts forward improvement suggestions from the following three aspects:Firstly,updating the requirements.Sorting out the core quality which is consistent in the whole development process and excavating the demands of the time.Optimize the competence structure;Form the core of teachers’ quality;Clarify the cognitive requirements and construct standards applied to different stages of development.Secondly,adjusting the text structure and presentation style of our standards.Presenting standard in a thematic,upright text structure.Paying attention to text operability and balancing the relationship between teacher autonomy and standard guidance.Thirdly,we should explore effective models for the implementation of professional standards.Attaching importance to the coordination between teachers’ subjective consciousness and external rules.Emphasizing the practice orientation and constructing the practice system adapted to the standard.Building a learning system to improve the availability of standards for individuals.Supervising and evaluating the implementation and taking into account the instrumental and humanistic nature of the standards. |
