Exploring Mutual Learning of Four Chinese Senior High School EFL Teachers in a Collaborative Action Research Community
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Hongying Zheng
Hongying ZHENG is a professor and doctoral supervisor of English Education at Sichuan Normal University. She obtained her Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Her research interests include L2 teacher professional development, English language teaching, and learning.
Tingting HUAN is now a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Teaching Methodology at Sichuan Normal University.
Abstract
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ professional development has been attached much importance with the advent of the National English Curriculum Standards (NECS in short) for Senior High Schools as it initiates the shift from knowledge-skill-oriented education to competence-oriented education. As an effective way for teachers’ professional development, collaborative action research community is introduced in this study to provide teachers with opportunities for mutual engagement, meaning negotiation, and a shared repertoire. Four senior high school EFL teachers from four different schools were studied in a collaborative action research community to explore how teachers from diversified backgrounds achieve mutual learning for their professional development. With data collected from observation, interviews, and journals, the study reveals that diversity and partiality help maintain mutual engagement in the community of practice. Meaning negotiation and mutual accountability in a joint enterprise contribute to the coherence of the community. Moreover, the participative activity of online and offline group discussion and the common topic of thinking visualization were treated as sources of a shared repertoire, an essential indication of a harmonious community. In this case, this study extrapolates how the collaborative action research community achieves harmony to support teachers’ professional development in action research.
About the authors
Hongying ZHENG is a professor and doctoral supervisor of English Education at Sichuan Normal University. She obtained her Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Her research interests include L2 teacher professional development, English language teaching, and learning.
Tingting HUAN is now a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Teaching Methodology at Sichuan Normal University.
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© 2023 FLTRP, Walter de Gruyter, Cultural and Education Section British Embassy
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Teacher Development
- Exploring Mutual Learning of Four Chinese Senior High School EFL Teachers in a Collaborative Action Research Community
- Examining Chinese University EFL Teachers’ Perceptions and Participation in an Academic Salon-Based Professional Learning Community
- Insights From Informal Research Mentoring of Three University EFL Teachers
- Second Language Acquisition
- A Decade of Research Into Second Language Acquisition: A State-of-the-Science Review (2009-2019)
- The Correlation Between English and French Proficiency of Chinese Trilingual Learners
- Chinese Learners’ Use of Translation in Learning Academic Subjects in English-Medium Instruction Context
- Discourse Analysis
- On the Novel Chinese Modifier-Head Construction Shejian Shang de X: An Analysis of Meaning Construction
- Course Design and Material Evaluation
- Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Communicative English for Chinese Learners (Integrated Course) From the Perspective of Ecosophy
- Abstracts
- Chinese Abstracts
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Teacher Development
- Exploring Mutual Learning of Four Chinese Senior High School EFL Teachers in a Collaborative Action Research Community
- Examining Chinese University EFL Teachers’ Perceptions and Participation in an Academic Salon-Based Professional Learning Community
- Insights From Informal Research Mentoring of Three University EFL Teachers
- Second Language Acquisition
- A Decade of Research Into Second Language Acquisition: A State-of-the-Science Review (2009-2019)
- The Correlation Between English and French Proficiency of Chinese Trilingual Learners
- Chinese Learners’ Use of Translation in Learning Academic Subjects in English-Medium Instruction Context
- Discourse Analysis
- On the Novel Chinese Modifier-Head Construction Shejian Shang de X: An Analysis of Meaning Construction
- Course Design and Material Evaluation
- Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Communicative English for Chinese Learners (Integrated Course) From the Perspective of Ecosophy
- Abstracts
- Chinese Abstracts
