A Comparative Study of Teacher Autonomy Between Novice Teachers and Proficient Teachers in the Context of University English Teaching Reform in China

Teacher autonomy has become a popular focus in the field of teacher education at present. The development of learner autonomy depends largely on teacher autonomy. Teacher autonomy is also one of the most effective ways to support teachers in their classroom practice, as well as to improve and expand their professional preparation and practices. Apart from that, the research of teacher autonomy at different phases of teachers＇ professional development may provide insight into how to strengthen their autonomy capability and to better understand the differences in teachers＇ development at different stages. The current study aims to explore the different level of how university novice and proficient English teachers see themselves as autonomous practitioners on the five dimensions of teacher autonomy： teaching autonomy, assessment autonomy, school management autonomy, professional development autonomy, and curriculum development autonomy. In addition, it proposes coping strategies to facilitate the development of teacher autonomy, which may shed some light on cultivating teacher autonomy for teachers at different developing stages, development of expertise, and teacher education.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Novice Teachers

Good teachers need to grasp the key points clearly and let students understand,good teachers also need to generally recognized and appreciated by students.A teacher with good ideas and good ethics can be called a good teacher.A good teacher is not equal to an expert teacher and when we talk about good teachers we should admit that novice teachers can also be good teachers,we need to find the bright spots in the novice teachers and protect these bright spots.This paper demonstrates that novice teachers can be good teachers by demonstrating their serious professional attitude,advanced teaching concept and strong learning motivation.In addition,by enumerating the weaknesses of novice teachers,such as lack of experience,lack of educational tact,and inadaptability at the beginning of employment and hopes to provide targeted guidance for the training activities of novice teachers in the school.

Mentoring in Novice Teacher Training Programme

1.INTRODUCTIONTeacher mentoring plays an important role in teacher education.The use of mentoring is strongly advocated for improving novice teachers’ performance in some countries,such as UK and the USA.In China,mentoring has been employed for in-service novice teachers’ development in a number of middle schools for the following reasons:1)In-service novice teachers are officially qualified but have insufficient teaching experience(only two-month teaching practice);2)Some new teachers do not have a strong theoretical base because of the unpractical university curriculum design(Chen,et al.2003);3)Mentoring,originated with the aim of helping novice teachers become qualified teachers,is supposed to help solve the problems mentioned above in the Chinese context.Therefore,it has been adopted,and it is required by some schools and educational bureaus that new teachers should have mentoring during their first or second year in practice.

A Study of the Relationship between Emotion Regulation and Job Burnout among Junior High School Novice English Teachers

This study aimed to examine the relationship between junior high school novice English teachers’emotion regulation and job burnout.To achieve this purpose,a survey consisting of various scales was administered to 133 primary school teachers selected from Yunnan Province in China.Statistical analyses revealed gender differences in job burnout and emotion regulation among these teachers and highlighted the association between these two variables.The findings established that male novice English teachers in junior schools generally experience lower levels of job burnout and possess better emotion regulation skills compared to their female counterparts.Additionally,a strong negative correlation was identified between job burnout and emotional regulation skills,indicating that the stronger the emotional regulation skills,the less likely novice English teachers are to experience job burnout.The study further emphasized caution in the use of cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy,as it may have an adverse effect on mitigating job burnout.This study concluded with recommendations for providing junior high school novice English teachers with opportunities to develop and enhance their emotion regulation skills to reduce job burnout effectively.

A Comparative Study of the Planning and Preparation Strategies of Novice,Proficient and Expert Teachers in Chinese Middle School

Teachers' lesson planning and preparation, which are the most important part of the job of teaching, are the beginning of teaching process. A class cannot be good or well performed without planning or preparation. Referring to the five stages model of Dreyfus(1986) and considering the teaching context of middle schools, the researcher uses qualitative and quantitative methods to get and analyze the data from 96 English teachers in three Chinese middle school. The findings show that in teaching content planning, novice and some proficient teachers cares more about the knowledge and the teaching itself, but the expert teachers pay more attention to the students' abilities and development as well as the knowledge; moreover, the novice teachers are more likely to focus on the teaching aims and choosing of teaching aid. This study also has significance in contributing to the teachers' expertise in planning.

The Way of the Novice English Teachers＇ Professional Development in Secondary School

In the modern times, the professional development of teachers is a hot topic among the educational world. Facilitating the professional development of teachers is one of a most important way to improve the teachers＇ personalities. However, how to facilitate the professional development of the novice English teacher in the secondary school is still a big and headache problem in front of all education managers and all novice English teachers. For this reason, it has a huge practical significance to look for some ways to research the professional development of the novice English teachers in secondary school. The objective of this research is to promote the professional development of novice English teachers in secondary school through a wide range of ways. It also aims to promote the whole personalities of all English teachers and the whole English teaching qualities. This paper wiU research in how to promote and facilitate the professional development of the novice English teachers in secondary school from the parts of country, school and teachers. Specificly speaking, from the perspective of country, it contains the way of some short trains for novice teachers from superior educational department and some educational action research; From the perspective of the secondary school, it includes school-based in-service training, the exploitation of school-based curriculum and learning team; From the perspective of teacher themselves, it includes teaching reflection, observing other teachers＇ class and using micro-teaching to promote teachers＇ teaching skills.

A Case Study on Novice English Teachers’Teaching Reflection on Micro-teaching Class

Micro-teaching has been used as a teaching skill since 1960s and it has become an effective method used in teaching training program.This study applies the methods of questionnaires,classroom observations and interviews to carry out an investiga⁃tion on novice teachers’reflection on their micro-teaching.The study shows that micro-teaching can stimulate teachers’reflection on their teaching.

Autonomy in English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Novice Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong

Following years of pre-service teacher education,novice teachers are often enthusiastic about embarking on the journey in the teaching profession.However,they may not always possess the internal capacity and institutional support to take effective control of their teaching.This paper reports on a case study of the teaching lives of two novice secondary school ESL(English as a second language)teachers in Hong Kong,drawing on qualitative data gathered through individual face-toface interviews,and supplemented by email exchanges and telephone conversations,over a one-year period.The study investigates how novice English teachers develop their teacher autonomy,and what factors contribute to their development as autonomous English teachers.The paper concludes that novice English teachers in Hong Kong possess the capacity and are also ready for autonomy,and that an invitational,supportive and collaborative school environment plays a decisive role in affording ample opportunities for novices to develop their autonomy in language teaching.The study suggests that novice teachers should become critically aware of the affordances(opportunities,possibilities,invitations,enablements)in their working conditions,and should meanwhile exercise their teacher agency to act on these affordances to pursue their personal-professional development.