Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist

Perspective

1. Introduction

• Shift in research paradigms;• Conceptualizations of teacher

learning;• The constructivist perspective;• A survey study

Questions • What is the nature of teacher learning? • How should teachers react to the contextual changes in understanding their professional development? • In what way does the context affect and motivate teachers’ professional learning?

2. Understanding Teacher Learning from the

Constructivist Perspective • 2.1 Conceptualizations of teacher learning in the previous studies• 2.2 The constructivist perspective of teacher learning

2.1 Conceptualizations of teacher learning in the previous studies

a) Teacher learning as skill learning;b) Teacher learning as a cognitive process; c) Teacher learning as personal construction; d) Teacher learning as reflective practice. (Richards and Farrel, 2005: pp.6-7)

2.2 The constructivist perspective of

teacher learning

2.2.1 Philosophical basis of

Constructivism

1) Dewey’s educational philosophy;2) Piaget’s theory of humans’ cognitive development; 3) Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.

2.2.2 Constructivist assumptions of

learning

(Fisher, 1991: p.15)

1) Reality: is constructed as experience;

2) Knowledge: is constructed as a product of social and individual

assumptions and is mediated and developed

through language;

3) Meaning: is constructed both

internally and socially as processes of mental

representations;

4) Process of knowing: is an ongoing process of interpreting present

events from within the observer’s existential

framework;

5) Person: behavior is indeterminate, constrained by recursive relations between self and the environment.

The constructivist learning cycle

(Roberts, 1998: pp.23)

1. filters new information

6. revises mental representations

5. maintains the meaning 4. confirms or disconfirms

3. matched with her prior internal representations

2. constructs the meaning

2.2.3 Constructivist implications

for Teacher learning

(Pope, 1993: p.20-21)

1) The world is real but individuals vary in their

perception of it;

2) An individual’s conception of the real world has integrity for

that individual;

3) Teacher use personally pre-existing theories to explain and

plan their teaching;

4) Teachers test these theories for fruitfulness and modify them in the

light of such testing.

a) Teacher and reality • Teachers actively construct and re-

construct their knowledge by maintaining or revising their existential mental representations of the ‘reality’;

• The ‘reality’ of teachers is chiefly constructed through their experience of teaching;

• Different teachers will have different understandings of the same ‘reality’.

b) Teacher and knowledge• The way how teacher’s knowledge

is constructed depends on how the teacher interprets the ‘reality’;

• Once the interpretations are internalized into the existential framework of teachers, it will surely change the content of their knowledge.

c) Teacher and the changing context

• The ‘reality’ is changing; • Teacher learns only when their

reflection induces them to change their understanding of the ‘reality’;

• The new understanding invites them to modify their behavior in their interaction with the ‘reality’.

3. Teacher learning in the New Educational

Context: Evidence from Chinese EFL

Teachers

3.1 The Emergence of a New Educational Context in China

The changes in the educational context

1) The social and economic status of teachers has been greatly upgraded in the past decade;

2) The movement of Professionalism

presents new questions to teacher education;

3) Curriculum innovation;

4) The spurt of technology.

3.2 The Survey Study

Method• The subjects • The instrument • Categorizing the questionnaire• The administration

1) sensitivity to educational reforms;2) awareness of institutional changes;3) use of new teaching technologies;4) perceptions about contextual changes; 5) motivation to professional learning; 6) preferences to the means of learning.

Teaching age

1-10 years

10-20 years

20 years above

number 51 26 15Professional title

Assistant teacher

lecturer Associate professor

professor

number 30 34 26 2Academic degree

doctor master bachelor College graduate or other

number 56 36

Table 1: personal information

Findings (1)• Most of the subjects are well

aware of the reforms concerning college English teaching.

Findings (2)• English teaching time has been

reduced in the past several years;• The textbooks they use have been

changed more frequently than before;

• The students they teach are more motivated and autonomous than before in their English learning.

Findings (3)• New electronic techniques are not

much employed by this cohort of teachers, indicating quite a lot of teachers are sticking to the traditional “chalk-and-blackboard” way of teaching.

Findings (4)• Most teachers (85 /92) believe that

contextual changes are affecting their professional activities;

• The most affected aspect is that they are facing more serious challenges in their professional knowledge and abilities;

• The next one is that they are forced to change their traditional teaching methods.

Findings (5)• Pressure mainly comes from heavy teaching load (59) and incompetence in scientific research （ 51 ） ; • Half of the subjects (49, 53%) claim that they are professionally knowledgeable, while the other half (43) thinking they are not;• 91 of the subjects in the answer to Question 14 expressed the hope to continue their professional learning through a certain way.

Findings (6)• Only half of the subjects have got

chances of learning before;• These teachers improve their

teaching competence mainly through self-study and reflection.

• They chose off-site advanced studies as the most preferred way to continue their professional learning .

Implications• Both the society and the

institutions should help teacher get adjusted to the changing context by providing them with as many as possible learning chances and supports.

4. Conclusion

• Any changes in the societal context will

inevitably affect teachers’ beliefs about their

professional status and prospect;

• Any alterations in the institutional factors will

also affect teachers’ professional beliefs and

decisions;

• Teacher learning is by nature a process deserving plan,

design, and execution in the interaction with both the

societal and the institutional contexts.

• High awareness of the contextual changes and

effort in actively constructing new knowledge are valued; inertia will be a threat to the professional development of teachers.

Thank you !