Section 2 Teachers

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I.Thinking

【Case Reflection】

Mr Li is an English teacher in elementary school who cares for his students very much. He requires the students to listen carefully and take notes in class, but he does not communicate or interact with them much. Despite his efforts, he finds that the students cannot grasp what he has taught and their test marks are unsatisfactory. Please help him to find the cause.

II. Teacher Roles

A teacher is not only the organizer of the teaching process, but also one of the elements which can affect the outcomes of learning. As an English teacher, one should be clearly aware of one's role, the basic qualities of a teacher, and one's professional development.

Teachers have certain professional characteristics and responsibilities in the teaching process.

Traditionally, teachers were regarded as transmitters of knowledge and masters of the classroom, but in the modern world, there are new roles.

1.Instructor

Teachers often play a major role in transferring knowledge and gathering information. They should not only impart knowledge, teach learning strategies and methods, but also help the students to understand how to be an honorabe person.

2.Controller

This is a basic part of the teacher's overall leading role. It is mainly manifested in strict implementation of procedures and control over the allocation of teaching time.

3.Assessor

As a behavior evaluator, a teacher should correct mistakes and listen to feedback from students, while being considerate and reasonable in doing so.

Gathering feedback is an effective way to evaluate students' behavior and to determine whether they have mastered what has been taught.

4.Organizer

As an organizer, a teacher should direct students' tasks, carry out activities, and evaluate feedback with great clarity. Successful teaching and learning activities enable students to understand what they have to do.

5.Promoter

A promoter should offer sound advice when students face difficulties, and highlight connections between old and new knowledge to help students learn and build a new system of knowledge and experience.

6.Participant

Teachers should regard themselves as participants in teaching and learning activities to improve the class atmosphere, enhance the relationship between teachers and students, and help students to solve problems. Teachers can also get unexpectedly good ideas from students.

7.Resource-provider

Teachers should provide information about the background, answers, examples, and opportunities for the teaching activities, being ready to instruct students at all times.

8.Researcher

To play the role of researcher, teachers should not only have knowledge of education and current research, but also have the ability to discover problems and direct their own research to solve them. They should, ideally, be able to combine class instruction with scientific research to improve teaching quality.

9.Facilitator

Facilitator is a role based on the student-centred principle (students control the class), while teachers guide and encourage. This requires teachers to have a broad range of knowledge, and the ability to motivate students.

In short, teachers' roles are varied and are mainly inspired by the requirements and expectations from the communities, schools, parents and students. The job is a difficult but extremely worthwhile one.

Please participate:

III.The Professional Qualifications of Teachers

Chinese scholars have different perspectives on the attributes of English teachers. They can be summarized as moral, personal and professional qualities.

1.Morality

Morality is the most important quality of teachers and one which determines the teachers' devotion and persistent pursuit of quality in education. Morality also has a direct impact on students' healthy development. Therefore, English teachers should have firm ideas and beliefs, a scientific outlook and devotion to education. The core concepts of morality include dedication, fairness and responsibility.

2.Personality

An English teacher's personality is a comprehensive reflection of his/her quality. It is a professional characteristic and requirement for an English teacher to be a mentor, both academically and morally. A good personality is expressed in honorable character, pleasant temperament, tolerance, humility, studiousness, sense of humor, harmonious interpersonal relationships, and self-awareness. He or she should also be dignified with a good sense of aesthetic quality, a positive and patient attitude, and a wealth of knowledge and working experience. These aspects correlate with and influence each other.

3.Professional Quality

The professional attributes of an English teacher can be summed up as follows:

(1) Solid professional knowledge and skills

An English teacher must have a solid foundation of linguistic knowledge and language skills, especially teachers of elementary and middle school. They should be able to use English with near-native proficiency, understand the VOA's and BBC's Special English programs, have standard pronunciation and intonation, read English papers, original fiction and academic theory, and translate simple English articles. In addition, an English teacher must be fully aware of English culture, especially the values, thinking patterns, and other cultural connotations that can be explored in the teaching process.

(2) Comprehensive teaching ability

Teaching competence includes the implementation of organizational skills and teaching ability. An English teacher must have knowledge of psychology, pedagogy and methodology, and be familiar with the organization of teaching steps and basic teaching principles. They should be also familiar with the syllabus, teaching materials and subject, and be able to choose appropriate reference books. Furthermore, teachers should have the ability to design proper lesson plans that are in line with educational and teaching theory, and properly use non-verbal expressions, such as gestures, movements and facial expressions to manage the class atmosphere. A teacher should also be good at coordinating the unexpected situations in classroom, making decisions, gathering information, and guiding students to evaluate their learning. They should be able to use both traditional and modern teaching aids, making good use of multimedia and the Internet.

(3) A system of theoretical knowledge

Besides a knowledge of general education and psychology, English teachers must also have theoretical knowledge of language teaching including knowledge of modern languages, foreign language acquisition and language pedagogy.

(4) Research capability

English teachers should play the role of classroom researcher by applying educational knowledge, scientific research skills and ideas in continuous research, to analyze their experience, and improve their teaching methods, and as a result develop new theory to guide their practice.

III.Teacher Professional Development

1. The content of professional development

Since the 1980s, professionalization of teachers has become a powerful movement contributing to developments in theory and improvements in the social status of teachers.

Professionalization is the process of professional growth, and more specifically in our context the process of promoting the professional growth of teachers. Teacher professional development is a dynamic process (Figure 3-1) . Teachers' ideas, motivations, attitudes, values, professional skills and behaviors are constantly adjusted and amended through reflections, evaluations and challenges. The core content of professionalization includes professional knowledge, professional skills, qualifications, the National Curriculum Standards and requirements, ethical standards and self-awareness.

Figure 3-1 The Dynamic Process of Teacher's Professional Development

2.The process of professional development

(1) Awareness and ability to perform sustained development

This is a key factor in gauging the worth of a teacher. Teachers' professional development must be intrinsically motivated, because external pressure can only force them to achieve the basic standards. Teachers have to actively involve themselves in professional development and bring their initiative into full play.

The new curriculum standards advocate the scientific concept of development, which requires teachers to meet their current professional development needs, and explore opportunities for future development.

(2) Improve teaching reflection

Teaching reflection, in which teachers evaluate themselves on their teaching behavior and activities, is regarded as the key to teachers' professional development and self-growth. This reflection requires teachers to carefully observe the problems they meet and improve the quality and skills of their teaching through systematic and scientific analysis. Techniques to enable this include, among other things, establishing teacher's portfolios and keeping teaching journals.

(3) Enhance professional training

Professional training is important in developing teachers' professional skills. It is teacher-oriented and takes teaching tasks as its focus. It includes pre-service training, teaching practice and in-service development. The enhancement of teaching skills through professional training is a combination of pre-service and in-service training which lasts an entire teaching career. The design and implementation of training programs must follow correct education concepts, comptible with teachers' personal development, have definite goals and reasonable evaluation systems, and embody the concept of life-long education.

(4) Perfecting the teacher certification system

More and more attention has been paid to teacher certification systems in recent years, which is considered a necessity for teachers' professionalization. The certification institutions should have scientific certification procedures, and monitoring and apeals mechanisms, to ensure that certification of teachers is rigorous, transparent and reasonable, and that the management of teachers are scientific, equitable and transparent.