Paths to Professional Growth for Teachers - Cases of 30 Outstanding Teachers

Author: Zhang Wanshang, edited by Wan Wei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-17
Features: How to achieve teachers' professional development, or how to reconstruct the role and image of teachers, may not have fixed models or routines, nor a uniform evolutionary process. However, there are at least some common characteristics involved. The Pathways of Teacher Professional Development—Cases of 30 Outstanding Teachers demonstrates these characteristics through case studies, helping us understand the current role of teachers and how they progress from competent to excellent, and from excellent to outstanding. Improvement comes through reflection. Some say education is an industry heavily influenced by experience, and those involved in it may easily be tied down by past practices. Growth comes through research. Former teachers did not necessarily need to see themselves as researchers, as conventional methods and existing experience could usually handle challenges from teaching or students. Their task was simply to integrate students into the teaching routine and convey knowledge within a given time frame. Sublimation comes through refinement. Progress comes through exploration. "Accumulating knowledge leads to wisdom." The 30 teachers featured in this book share their heartwarming journeys during the new curriculum reform, revealing the origins of their confusion, the emergence of their problems, the development of their methods, the sources of their joy, and the formation of their wisdom. This allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the principle that "accumulating knowledge leads to wisdom."