CC BY
23
УДК 378 ББК Ч48
Ван Чжи,
бакалавр, доцент, Хулунбуирский колледж (Хулунбуир, Китай), e-mail: [email protected]
Лян Сюмэй,
бакалавр, доцент, Хулунбуирский колледж (Хулунбуир, Китай), e-mail: [email protected]
Ли Сюэфэн,
бакалавр, доцент, Хулунбуирский колледж (Хулунбуир, Китай), e-mail: [email protected]
Лю Пин, бакалавр, доцент Хулунбуирский колледж (Хулунбуир, Китай), e-mail: [email protected]
Проблема профессиональной подготовки преподавателей высшей школы (на примере Хулуньбуирского института)
В статье обобщён и представлен анализ опыта Хулуньбуирского института по подготовке преподавателя высшей школы. Одним из обязательных элементов, обеспечивающих эффективное развитие вновь учреждённых институтов, готовящих бакалавров, является команда высокопрофессиональных преподавателей, владеющих не только методическими познаниями, но и качественным теоретическим багажом в определенной сфере производственной деятельности. Авторы статьи предлагают способы эффективного решения актуальной для высшего образования Китая проблемы: большинство из преподавателей имеют малый стаж педагогической работы и недостаточный практический опыт. Выводы исследования ориентированы на возможности обеспечения интенсивного развития институтского образования.
Ключевые слова: профессиональная подготовка преподавателей, профессиональный рост, образовательная стратегия.
Wang Zhi,
Bachelor, Assistant professor, Hulubuir College (Hulubuir, China), e-mail: [email protected]
Liang Xiumei, Bachelor, Assistant professor, Hulubuir College (Hulubuir, China), e-mail: [email protected]
Li Xuefeng, Bachelor, Assistant professor, Hulubuir College (Hulubuir, China), e-mail: [email protected]
Liu Ping,
Bachelor, Assistant professor, Hulubuir College (Hulubuir, China), e-mail: [email protected]
Problem of Higher School Teachers’ Vocational Training (Exemplified by Hulunbuir College)
The paper generalizes and presents Hulunbuir College experience in training higher school teachers. One of the prerequisites ensuring sustainable development of newly-established undergraduate colleges is a team of well-qualified and professional teachers who are able to use both teaching techniques and qualitative theoretical knowledge in a certain sphere of production activity. The article presents some ways of effective solution of the problem urgent for China higher education: most teachers are inexperienced educators and have little hands-on experience. From the research that has been carried out, the authors can conclude that it's necessary to provide intensive development of higher education.
Keywords: teachers' vocational training, professional development, educational strategy.
© Ван Чжи, Лян Сюмэй, Ли Сюэфэн, Лю Пин, 2013
255
Colleges and universities bear the function of talents cultivation, scientific research, social service, cultural inheritance and innovation. Talent is the foundation of a nation; it’s the management of politics, and the prosperity of business. It has reached a consensus that talent makes a good college. Having a good quality, a sufficient number of talent team is the maximum support in the development of college. James Bryant Conant, a Harvard ex-president, once said, “The honor of the university is not in its buildings and number, but in generations of teacher’s ability. An outstanding university needs outstanding teachers.” It is pointed out clearly in “Outline of National Medium- and Long-term Program for Education Reform and Development 2010-2020” that higher education of our country should make great efforts to improve the quality and level of education, which put forward higher requirements to all college teachers. Nowadays, higher education in China from the view of quantity has entered the era of mass higher education, but the development level of professional teachers in colleges and universities has become a key factor of restricting the development of the quality of higher education in our country. This problem is particularly prominent in the newly-established undergraduate colleges.
Since 1999, in order to realize the process of popularization of higher education in our country, the Ministry of Education has approved that some junior colleges were updated into new undergraduate college alone or in combination. However, there are many problems in development of teachers’ professionalization in these colleges; one of them is insufficient number of teachers, another one is their teaching skills. Newly-established colleges can realize sustainable development, improve the quality of education and have their own characteristics if they have professional teachers who are competent in undergraduate education. So, an urgent problem in newly-established colleges is how to improve teachers’ teaching ability and promote teachers’ professional development.
I. The necessity of promoting teachers’ professional development in newly-established undergraduate colleges
1. Teacher professionalization.
Scholars both at home and abroad give different definitions of teacher professionalization. It was cleared officially the first time in Proposal About the Status of Teacher, which was proposed by UNESCO and the International Labor Organization in 1966. It proposed that education should be regarded as a specialized profession.
Teachers would obtain and maintain specialized knowledge and specialized technical skills after strict and continuous learning. The movement of teacher professionalization was further deepened after the 1980s. Two important reports, which were published in succession by Carnegie Working team and Holmes team in the United States in 1986, stressed that they should establish professionalism of teachers for the reform of teacher education and teacher professional development goals. Teachers Law of the People’s Republic of China has established that teachers are professional staff fulfilling the duties of education. It marked that not only labor nature of teachers in our country has changed fundamentally, but also the role of teachers has changed from a traditional teacher to a professional educator.
Teacher professionalization includes three aspects; first, individual teacher improved their professional level; second, group of teachers improved professional level; third, professional status of teacher’s occupation was ensured and promoted. These three aspects contact closely, promote one another and influence the course of teacher professionalization. The core of teacher’s development is professionalization. Teacher professionalization is the course of lifelong learning, the course of solving problems continually. In this course, teachers’ career aspirations, professional ethics, professional emotional and social responsibility would be grown up, promoted and innovated continually.
2. Teachers’ professional development.
Teacher’s professional development is a course of teacher professionalization with their professional structure constantly updated, evolution and rich, which includes professional knowledge, professional skills, professional theory, professional spirit, and professional intelligence. In teachers’ professional development these five aspects are interlinked and mutually promote organic integration. Among them, professional knowledge and skills are the basis of teachers’ professional development. Professional spirit is motivation of teachers’ professional development. Professional theory is protection of teacher’s professional development. Professional intelligence is the highest pursuit and concentrated expression in teacher’s professional development. Teacher’s professional development is mainly reflected in the rich and adeptness of teacher’s professional knowledge and skills, in the persistence and pursuit of professional belief and ideal, in the deep and positive professional emotion and attitude, and in the unique and excellent teaching style and quality.
3. The necessity of teachers’ professional development.
Newly-established undergraduate colleges are mostly formed from traditional colleges or vocational schools. The level of original faculty is uneven. During the combination of these colleges, selection procedure to choosing the survival of the fittest is omitted. The results of absorbing everyone in the former colleges cause severe unreasonable teacher structure and overall weakness of teaching ability. Moreover, in order to achieve the requirements of the Undergraduate Teaching Evaluation, newly-established undergraduate colleges introduced a large number of new teachers. Most of the young teachers have just graduated from universities. They own systematic knowledge structure, but they don’t have any teaching experience. They usually graduate from one university, and then enter another university having no practical teaching experience. According to three stages in the theory of teaching specialty, which include preparation stage, adaptation stage and developing stage, most of teachers in newly-established undergraduate colleges are in the stage of adaption. Teachers in adaptation stage just acknowledge the role of teachers from practice; experience the complexity of teaching and start to explore teaching pragmatically. A part of teachers is in the primary stage of development. Their professional belief gradually establishes, professional skill continuously improves, practical knowledge increasingly enriches and their professional role progressively forms.
Accounting for one third of the total number of China University, newly-established undergraduate colleges play an important role in the process of massification and popularization of higher education, and gradually become an important force to bear the Undergraduate Education. Compared with research universities, newly-established undergraduate colleges belong to teaching-oriented colleges, and they emphasize the teaching process to impart knowledge. The ability to train qualified applied personnel is the key element to measure the core competitiveness of newly-established undergraduate colleges, which ultimately depends on the teacher’s teaching ability and level. Therefore, promotion of the professional development of teachers is related to the survival and development of new undergraduate colleges.
II. The problems of teachers’ professional development in newly-established undergraduate colleges.
1. Teachers don’t have awareness about their self-development, and update their knowledge
slowly. It is the course for teachers’ autonomous choice to improve teaching ability and promote professional development. It requires teachers to own awareness of continuous learning for enhancing their professionalism and own the high degree of identity and sense of responsibility for their colleges, occupations and students. Teachers in newly-established undergraduate colleges usually lack for the concept of the modern college or an inherent requirement for professional development. They don’t have consciousness to promote their level of scientific research or teaching ability. They lack for active learning aspirations for development, and then update their knowledge slowly. Some teachers, with the phenomenon of burnout, cope with the job. They neither prepare for their lessons seriously, nor plan their personal and professional development.
2. The ability of students is not enough to motivate teachers’ teaching. Newly-established undergraduate college is the product of popularization of higher education in our country, which is quite different with the elite education in traditional college. Newly-established undergraduate colleges have their regional characteristics because most of them are built in small and medium-sized cities or in remote areas. The quality of students is not high, with lower scores during enrollment, relatively poor basis of study, no strong learning consciousness. It is difficult to form a strong academic atmosphere and excellent learning atmosphere in a short term. Based on the principle of “teaching is learning”, teaching behavior is frequently teaching and learning interaction. They reinforce each other. Without students’ coordination, teaching becomes a monologue of teachers. From the teaching practice, teacher could not feel happy to progress with students together. Lack of motivation to teach will stop teachers’ professional development and cause the phenomenon of burnout.
3. Deviation from policy-oriented forms orders reversed phenomenon. First, for changing into real undergraduate colleges, newly-established colleges first consider that they put the limited educational funding to the improvement of the hardware conditions. The improvement software conditions lag behind. Second, steeping in the executive authorities, newly-established undergraduate colleges pay more attention to administration than teaching. The teachers’ teaching behavior is the pursuit of the title, position and prestige. Third, too much emphasis is put on face-saving projects; newly-established colleges put a large amount of energy into various student activities.
4. Teachers’ training is formalized, while effectiveness is ignored. The importance of teachers’ training is realized gradually in newly-established undergraduate colleges. Teachers’ training increases significantly, but the effectiveness is not high. At first, training content and methods are obsolete, backwardness and lack of novelty. Second, most of training imparts knowledge, not training teaching skills. Third, teachers learning initiative is not enough. Because of these, teachers’ training activities become a “going through the motions”, which is the measure of teachers’ job classification and promotion. It deviates from the original intention of the teacher training
III. Cause analysis of the problems in teachers’ professional development in newly-established undergraduate colleges
Teacher professionalization is a process of teachers’ personal and professional growth and advancement. In this process, teachers can update professional structure, improve the professional level and access sustainable development. But from the actual situation, some teachers in newly-established undergraduate colleges don’t have a sense of professionalism and entrepreneurial spirit. They appear to reveal the phenomenon of job burnout, confusion about their professional development, and no clear prospection about their future.
1. The overall quality of teachers needs to be improved.
The professional quality of teachers is the basic premise of the normal teaching and selflearning. In newly-established undergraduate colleges, there are many problems exposed in the teaching process. The reasons are that they lack for knowledge of psychology and pedagogy, and their backward educational ideas, methods or means. It is mainly reflected in the professional knowledge and professional skills.
(1). Teachers are deficient in knowledge structure on their profession. First, they lack for theoretical knowledge in education, psychology and pedagogy. Second, lack of strategic knowledge, which means that teachers cannot use teaching methods flexibly and effectively to carry out teaching in the specific educational teaching situation. Third, teachers are not good at or do not accumulate initiatively expertise and practical experience in teaching. Fourth, teachers do not have a considerable level of basic knowledge about the contemporary sciences and humanities.
(2). Teachers who have routine teaching skills lack in special teaching skills. Most of teachers can effectively guide students’ learning activities, control classroom learning atmo-
sphere and the students’ attention, and make sure teaching activities are carried out smoothly. But their special skills are obviously insufficient, such as the ability to optimize instructional design and the ability to reflect teaching.
2. Teachers’ professional attitude should be improved.
Teachers’ professional attitude is the spirit and judgment based on their understanding about the value and meaning of their profession, mainly including professional belief and professional spirit. In newly-established undergraduate colleges, lack of professional belief in the mind of teachers shows that lots of teachers do not pay attention to the construction of the concepts of education or educational philosophy, and never think of teaching and education. Lack of professional spirit mainly represents some teachers as having no sense of honor, pride, or sense of duty and responsibility about their own education and teaching.
3. Teachers’ professional development mechanisms need to be improved.
Teachers’ professional development mechanism is deficient, especially in the aspect of evaluating teacher. Nowadays, evaluating a teacher is basically the summative assessment. According to the document drawn up, higher authorities distinguish teachers between levels by the way of unified inspection, assessment and scoring. This evaluation is essentially for teachers in the past. It focuses on the partial performance of teachers, not a comprehensive, scientific evaluation. This evaluation is not an assessment for teacher’s development, ignoring intrinsic motivation of teacher on their self-creation and development. It is not conducive to the professional development of teachers.
IV. Effective strategies to promote teachers’ professional development in newly-established undergraduate colleges.
Teaching reform in newly-established undergraduate colleges is unfolding. Improving the quality of teaching is a long way to go. After exploring actively and then taking effective strategy, new colleges need to set up a team of teachers with professional ethics and teaching skills.
On the level of individual teachers.
As adult learners, college teachers’ internal motivation can stir up their self-improvement much more easily than external motivation. So respecting teachers’ initiative on their development, and helping them establish a sense of self-development are very important. For promoting teachers’ professional development, we can accomplish this purpose from the following two aspects:
To promote professionalization in teachers’ continuous learning
Peter Senge once said, “The only lasting advantage in the future is to have the ability to learn faster than your competitors.” Teachers’ special career firstly requires that teachers must love learning. “People who know it better than those who work on it are not as good as those who love it.” Their introductory training is not enough for the rest of their lives. They must update and transform their knowledge and technology throughout the survival period.”1 As the basis and prerequisite, learning is intrinsic necessity of teachers’ professional development.
In addition to the meaning of a general learning, teachers’ learning should also have the unique connotation given by the teaching profession. First, teachers learn not only for obtaining knowledge and information, but also for understanding when, where and how the knowledge exists. Except for enriching themselves and improving their self-cultivation, the most important task of teachers’ learning is the guidance for students’ learning, to guide students to seek out and explore knowledge. Second, teachers’ learning is not only for obtaining knowledge, but for the formation of an idea and values. Teachers need to think more than ordinary learners while learning. Teachers not only establish the corresponding knowledge structure, but also form the corresponding knowledge and correct values. Only in this way teachers can guide students to the correct understanding of knowledge. At last, teachers’ learning is actually a course of “teaching is learning”. The teaching profession is a course of practice and learning, in which they continue to promote, reinforce each other. Teachers encounter practical problems in the teaching process, for example, lack of knowledge, experience and practice. It will encourage teachers to continue to find opportunities to strengthen their own learning, so they can get a steady stream of wisdom in the teaching process. Continuous learning is an important way and method for teachers to maintain professional vitality. Owning a profession to guide students grown-up healthily and learn to learn, teachers get knowledge from continuous learning and share learning experience with students. In the process of recognize their own deficiencies, teachers can improve and perfect themselves.
(2). To promote professionalization for strengthening teachers’ reflecting ability.
The famous psychologist Lin Chongde points out that an excellent teacher equals with
1 UNESCO, Learning: The Treasure Within [M]. Beijing: Education and Science Press, 1996.143
the course of teaching and reflection. Teachers’ professional development is inseparable from teaching reflection. Teaching reflection needs teachers to observe rationally and correct their teaching activity, then to improve their teaching ability, which is a kind of technology of analyzing teaching skills. It is the measure and tool to promote teachers’ participation and professional development. It is also an effective way to improve teaching quality. After completing a period of class, the teacher must recall immediately the success and failure during teacher’s teaching and students’ learning, such as, the applicability of teaching objectivity, the effective measures in teaching, the interaction with students, the resonating way and the problems in class. Teachers would be enlightened from reflection, improve themselves from summing up the experience, and then enhance the ability to control the class. After completing a period of class, the teacher needs to reflect from selecting teaching materials; teaching methodology and designing questions, removing the dross while keeping the essence, then reorganize and write a new teaching program.
Teaching reflection is a long term course, not only for a period of class, a teaching detail, but for optimizing the entire process of teaching practice. If only emphasizing on reflection, timely reflection and the reflection effectively, teachers can continuously improve the quality of their teaching, and raise their teaching level to a new height.
On the level of colleges
(1). Plan scientifically and optimize the structure of teachers.
According to the problem on the structure of teachers and their own college orientation, most of newly-established undergraduate colleges timely developed teachers’ construction. Take Hulunbuir College as an example, the implementation plan “Teachers Construction at Hulunbuir College” guides clearly the ideology of the faculty, which is to comprehensively improve the teachers’’ political and professional level as the goal, according to discipline and profession need, effort to build a group of high-quality and professional teachers. In institutional innovation management, we actively explore the construction of teachers for their own development mode, build top-notch talent, academic leaders and outstanding young teachers as the backbone of teachers, grow the outstanding teachers groups, and cultivate and foster a large number of excellent teachers as an important task of the Construction of Teachers. We selected and
cultivated three groups of top-notch talent, academic leaders and outstanding young teachers, making the outstanding talent stand out. Now we have four top-notch talents, three famous teachers, 17 academic leaders, 27 outstanding young teachers and a large number of College Teaching backbones.
(2). To strengthen the cultivation of famous teacher and make them play the leading role in teaching. If newly-established undergraduate colleges want to promote teaching quality in the classroom, they need to increase teacher training efforts, continually promote excellent teachers’ teaching experience, ask famous teachers to play a leading role in teaching and guide the young teachers. Hulunbuir College always pay more attention to young teachers’ growing-up; implement the “young teachers’ tutorial system”, play a mentor to lead exemplary role, assigned experienced middle-aged teachers to help young teachers. Experienced teachers would guide and help young teachers teaching business and scientific research. Young teachers would learn how to teach, how to educate, and how to practice. The growing-up of young teachers will be write in the “Development of young teachers manual”, in which recording young teacher growing-up process.
(3). To carry out the teaching team building, and make them play an exemplary role. In July, 2007, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Finance jointly issued the “Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance on the implementation of undergraduate teaching quality and teaching reform project” (Higher Education [2007], 1). One of the important contents in this project is “construction of teaching team and outstanding teachers”. It pointed out, “Strengthen undergraduate teaching team building. Focus on the selection and construction of a number of high teaching quality, reasonable structure and teaching team. Carry out effective teamwork, and promote the reform of teaching contents and methods...”. Hunlunbuir College developed a file named “Teaching team building embodiment at Hulunbuir College”. We actively foster the construction of a teaching team led by teachers with high level of teaching and deep academic attainments, composed of professors, associate professors, lecturers and teaching assistants. The aim is promoting the reform of teaching contents and teaching methods, and promoting the communication of teaching seminars and teaching experience. Five excellent teaching teams were selected and two of them were entitled “outstanding teaching team” by autonomous region.
(4). To adhere to the combination of studying inside and outside to promote the development of professional teachers. In recent years teachers took part in many kinds of training, such as general education, studying outside, promoting the development of professional teachers. In particular, the college continued to increase front-line teachers to study off-campus, participate in the relevant faculty meetings and choose good teachers to study aboard. We selected potential and excellent teachers to study abroad access to foreign master and doctor degree. At the same time we actively carry out short-term training and academic exchanges with other universities. We invited education experts to give lectures, to broaden the horizons of teachers to improve their teaching ability.
(5). To improve teachers’ professional development as the goal, focus on teachers’ scientific research ability. Scientific research is an important way to improve the literacy of teachers. College has consciously developed teachers’ awareness of scientific research to create a strong atmosphere of scientific research. Strong proponent of the teachers involved in teaching research to help teachers determine the research direction according to their professional and practical. The college held two research conferences, developed “Hulunbuir College implementation of innovative capacity building programs of action”. We matched funds support efforts to increase research, especially for research projects of the national and provincial.
(6). To enrich training content to carry out flexible approaches of training. Concerning university teacher training, the American Faculty training methods are worth learning. Their inservice training mainly focuses on teaching issues. Then they combine difficulties encountered in the teaching process to design appropriate training content. Their common methods include analog teaching, classroom videos, open classroom observation, teacher’s consulting, as well as teacher development seminars. They generally discuss specific problems in teaching and how to teach a subject. We organize teachers’ classroom skills competition every two years. The aim is to help young teachers promote teaching competence and skills. We carry out “teaching skills competition and selection teaching expert activities”, amply reward the winners, and grant “teaching expert at Hulunbuir College”. This activity greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the majority of teachers involved in teaching and studying.
Статья поступила в редакцию 20 июля 2013 г.
