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摘 要：专业能力的提升是教师毕生所追求的事业. 本文旨在通过对一所中学英语教学方法的讨论,为学校的英语教师提升能力提供一个专业的可行的方案.在本文中,着重讨论了同窗指导这一方式的理论基础,重要性,如何实施这一方案以及在实施过程中需注意的问题.以期能够为在校的英语教师提供一种参考.
关键词：教师能力提升; 同窗指导; 第二语言教学; 重点高中
A Scheme for English Teachers' Professional Development
--In a specific context in a high school of China
1. Introduction
Professional development is about becoming the best kind of teacher one can be (Underhill, 1986). It is a continuous improvement throughout the whole of one's teaching career. The purpose of this assignment is to consider the options for providing professional development of English teachers in an institutional context, one of the best high schools in Jilin province of China.
This assignment is divided into four parts. The first part defines teachers' professional development and how development comes about. The second part provides a brief description of the context I worked in and am relating the assignment to. The following part outlines the theoretical basis of peer observation and the importance of such an observation scheme. The final part discusses how to implement the scheme and considers the scheme's limitation.
2. Professional development
2.1 Definitions of teacher development
Teacher development has several meanings. For example, Underhill defines it is a continuous process of transforming human potential into human performance, a process that is never finished (1986). In other words, it is a continual improvement process throughout the whole teaching career of teachers.
Teacher training equips new teachers with the skills and knowledge to teach successfully (Penny, 1996). Generally, the new teachers will be fully prepared in planning and preparation, setting learning objectives, assessment, etc. Unlike teacher training, which is a short/compulsory process addressing both knowledge and skills (Head & Taylor, 1997), teacher development draws on individual teacher's own inner resource for development. It is a desire stimulating an individual teacher for his/her professional development. It is motivated by teachers' own questioning of their roles and their duties in teaching in varied situation (Head & Taylor, 1997). According to Rossner, teacher development is about dealing with the needs and wants of the individual teacher in ways that suit that individual (1994). It is the needs about improvement for individual teacher in accordance with the specific situation he/she is working. Because teacher development focuses on individual needs, it is not just to do with language and teaching. Rossner (1992:4) "it's also about language development, counseling skills, assertiveness training, confidence-building, computing, meditation, cultural broadening - almost anything". Depending on the working conditions/desired direction, an individual teacher takes on different specific meanings and forms for his/her professional development. To sum up, teacher development is centered on the self- awareness of individual teacher's needs and desires. "It is a voluntary decision-making process" (Head & Taylor, 1997). 2.2 How professional development comes about
With respect to teacher development, teaching experience is a crucial factor, for much of teacher development is seen as relating to new experiences, new challenges and new opportunities for teachers to broaden their repertoire and take on new responsibilities and challenges. However, experience does not necessarily result in professional development (Tsui, 1998). Some teachers never seem to improve at all or just improve very slowly though they have been at the job for a number of years. For instance, when encountering with some new experience/challenges, some English teachers may consider little about doing some revisions to their previous teaching approaches or gaining some new skill/knowledge. Just like the saying that for some people, eighteen years teaching experience is one year's teaching experience repeated seventeen times. In teachers' professional development, the importance of self-reflection should be emphasized. In Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, self-reflection relates to an individual teacher thinking about what happens in his/her lesson, and thinking about alternative means of achieving goals or aims (Cruickshank & Applegate, 1981). It is a capacity to recognize and monitor the attention one has given to something. Professional development of teachers' goes on through repeatedly critiquing and reflecting on their teaching (Bailey, 2001). According to problems emerging in a variety of situations, English teachers question their teaching approaches and try to find some alternative or better ways of working. They will read books, observe their colleagues, take part in workshops and seminars and perhaps go to conferences. Therefore, professional development is a process whereby teachers continuously evolve in their use, adaptation and application of their skills/approaches throughout their whole careers (Bailey, et, al, 2001).
3. A brief introduction to the school
Before talking about the scheme of professional development, first, I want to describe the specific context of the high school, for which the the scheme is based . I have been an English teacher for one year in Jilin Province Experiment of High School, which is one of the best high schools in Jilin province. The English group of the school consists of 14 teachers. There are eight senior English teachers, 3 regular teachers and 2 novices and one head. The administrative staffs of school as well as the head of English group make the key decision, although they will take some suggestions from the two or three most experienced teachers in the English group. The rest of teachers do most of the teaching task. Generally, one teacher teaches two classes with 12 class-units for each very week. Unlike high schools in other country, the teaching materials are issued officially by Chinese Education Ministry, the highest education office in China. When I was an English teacher in high school, a new kind of coursebook is widely used. Unlike the former coursebook, the new one encourages English teacher to establish learner-center classes instead of goal-center classes. Accordingly, English teachers should do a series of revisions of their curriculum planning, curriculum implementation and curriculum evaluation. Due to the influence of previous teaching experience, some English teachers might not deal with the problems emerging in the classes very well. As a new English teacher, I am not affected by the new coursebook as greatly as those experienced teachers, although I need develop my teaching competency. To evaluate teaching performance of each English teacher, several experts in TESOL were invited to evaluate our language teaching. According to those experts' comments, the performance of most teachers was not satisfactory. Therefore, it is necessary to design a scheme to help most of the English teachers to improve their language teaching in the high school I worked. A fact should be mentioned that almost all the teachers in the school I worked are responsible. They always automatically pursue the professional development in their teaching experience.
4. Peer observation
4.1 Definition of peer observation
The main purpose of the scheme is to assist the professional development of the English teachers in the school I used to work. In connection with the scheme design, it is mainly about how to develop English teachers' teaching performance by peer observation. Peer Observation involves groups of colleagues observing each other's teaching, providing constructive and supportive feedback with the intention of improving and extending their practice (Freeman, 1982). During the course of peer observation, those teachers have observed lessons, and have in their turn been observed. Their roles in these two activities are radically different. When visiting the teaching classes of their colleagues, they are observer, and vice versa.
4.2 The purpose of peer observation
The peer observation in the institution that I am relating the assignment to is designed based on the purpose to encourage self-reflection and self-awareness about the teachers' own teaching approaches (Cosh, 1999). This peer observation focuses on the teacher's own development, rather than on any presumed ability to develop the teaching of their peers. The function of the peer observation in this specific context is to stimulate teachers to reassess their teaching through observing the classes from their peers. For instance, as observers, through deeply exploring his/her colleagues' action, individual teacher may not only arise his/her self-awareness about some existing problems in his/her teaching but also learn some new techniques and skills. And then, his/her will act on or respond to the problems and modify his/her teaching strategies and the methods used (Richards, 1990). For instance, through peer observation those English teachers will develop their understanding about learner-center language teaching process, develop effective teaching approaches used in learner-center class, identify technique and practices that can apply to their own teaching, etc. Therefore, in my teaching context, peer observation is used to stimulate awareness, reflection, and questioning teaching experience, and it also encourages changes and experiments in practice. 4.3 Observation constraints in my teaching context
Some problems should be considered before implementing this peer observation. The most important one is to modify teachers' attitudes to peer observation. In the past, peer observation was frequently carried out for purposes of appraisal or judgement of the observed in the context I used to work. To most of English teachers, the purpose of peer observation is evaluating their teaching performance, rather than stimulating individual's self-reflection. "There is an emphasis on teachers being observed, and being told about their teaching, rather approach than a process of active self-development through reflection, and self-awareness" (Cosh, 1999). Such a kind of peer observation could detrimental both to teacher confidence, and to a supportive teaching environment (Cosh, 1999). Therefore, most of English teachers are unwilling to take part in the peer observation, although they want to improve their teaching approach.
The second problem is about observation training. Observation training may be a part of pre-service for most of teachers in western countries. However, given the fact that almost all the English peer observations are carried out by head and senior teachers, the English teachers in the context I used to work had no relevant experience. While, to make the peer observation effective, those English teachers should have high competency in recording sufficient information as well as classroom procedure analysis in second language teaching. Peer observation is a complex process in the specific context I worked. From broad respect, it concerns some elements like lesson organization, classroom interaction, designing appropriate classroom activities, etc. It also refers to learner-center establishment and so on. From narrow respect, every observer could only concentrate on one or two elements just mentioned. Due to the complication/importance of observation, the observers should be highly trained. Accordingly, related training is essential prior to peer observation. As Richards states, an untrained observer may be overwhelmed by the complexity of what goes on and not be able to focus on important events as they unfold in the classroom (1990). Therefore, all the English teachers should be trained in observation in their spare time.
5. Scheme implement
5.1 Observation model
My peer observation model is designed by taking the needs/interests of each teacher on account. The observation model encourages each teacher to observe classes on areas particularly relevant to his/her concerns and areas of teaching (Cosh, 1999). There could be a bank of questions, criteria, or observation sheets to focus and promote ideas (Wajnryb, 1992). In this observation model, I suggest each teacher use an observation sheet. He/she should fill in the sheet about their idea generation before the observation and record a feedback about what he or she has learnt from the observation on the sheet after the observation. The role of the feedback sheet is necessary both for institutional monitoring of the system, and for full 'reflective' value to be gained from the observation (Cosh, 1999). Based on the schedule of English teachers, a workshop will be held among the teachers having mutual interests one or two times in a month. 5.2 Implementation procedure
The peer observation conducts among the teachers with mutual interests. Given the fact that nearly every English teacher has heavy teaching load (teaching 2 classes with each of them 5 lessons every week, and marking students' homework), it may be impossible for an English teacher to observe several classes. A solution is to allow each teacher to choose and only observe the classes with some areas particularly relevant to his/her own concerns and area of teaching. There is a need for teachers to decide jointly on such factors as who they should observe, what arrangements should be made with the observer, and what the focus should be (Cosh, 1999). For example, a teacher may have confusions about how to teach past tense, he/she may learn related knowledge and pedagogy through observing. Peer observation is to provide resources for teachers' later reflection. Through observing, individual teacher may not only know the method used by other teachers to deal with those problems confusing him/her, but also stimulate him/her to reflect why such methods were applied. And then, his/her will act on or respond to the problems and modify his/her teaching strategies and the methods used (Richards, 1990).
During the observation processes, the observer should not only focus on the areas he/she is interested in, but also get useful information as much as possible. After the observation, the observer should write his/her feedback, which is convenient for insights to be clarified, and development to be effective and shared (Cosh, 1999). During two or three weeks, a workshop will be held among the teachers with the similar interests. With the idea to solve mutual problems, there may be no shortage of common topics in their discussion after classes. They can discuss what they have learnt by peer observation, think about their future plan and so on.
As Richards argues (1990), cooperation is a powerful tool for professional development since the results are shared or practiced collaboratively. By peer observation and collaboration, the observers will explore the essences of some teaching action that they observed and learning something from those actions. After that, they will think about the possibilities to resolve the problems emerging in their teaching classes and accordingly modify his/her teaching strategies and methods used. However, it is important to realize that although the emphasis has shifted to self-development, many teachers will still feel nervous about being observed, and implicit judgments being made about their teaching. It is, therefore, important that teachers should be reassured, consulted, and allowed to feel that they retain an element of control and ownership of the process (Cosh, 1999:25). Thus, the discussion process is used for solve some problems through co-operation, rather than evaluation the teaching performance of other teachers. In addition, the make-decision of whether modifies his/her teaching strategies and teaching methods should be made by individual teacher himself/herself. 5.3Implementation constraint
With respect to the implementation of the observation model, some factors should be considered. The biggest problem is about timetable. For instance, it is possible that teacher A want to observe a specific class of teacher B, while teacher A has course on the same time. Generally, every teacher teaches two classes; accordingly, he/she will teach the same content twice. Although the teacher may do some revision according to the feedback from students, normally, the teaching procedures and teaching approaches are quite similar. In arranging the timetable, the school will try its best to give every teacher at least an opportunity to observe the courses taught by other teachers. Even though, it is possible that there will be some collisions for those teachers like some of them have to teach classes at the same time.
An alternative way for such conditions is to use video, a common technique in the high school I used to work. In connection with video, it mainly used to record the teaching performance of each teacher. The record could be provided to the teachers who are interested in the classes and the teacher observed. For the observers, the video record can provide them some vivid/consequent pictures about teaching procedure. They may get the general picture of the course, even some of them miss the course. For the teachers observed, the video record may be helpful for them to aware about what did really happen in his/her classes. The video record provides them a chance to critically reflect his/her language teaching in classes. Due to the scope limitation, a video could only record part of teaching activities. In fact, the language teaching process is a moving activity. To maximize the interaction with his/her students, the English teacher should not only stay in one place. Sometimes, the teacher's activities may beyond the recorded scope of video camera. It is said by some people that the school should arrange a person to change the recorded scope of video camera, however, based on my experience, such action would move students' attraction from learning to looking the video camera. Therefore, a complete teaching procedure and interaction between teacher and students may be unavailable for the teacher missing the course.
5.4 Two suggestions
As mentioned above, self-reflection is an effective way for teachers' development. And observation is a method to trigger self-reflection of individual teacher. What one reflects is according to the data his/her observed in classes. In other word, observation is the basis for self-reflection, rather than the stimulation for professional development. Like an accepted theory in second language acquisition, input is different from intake. Observation will be helpful only in the condition that English teachers could learn from their observation, namely, constant reflection on their practice.
关键词：教师能力提升; 同窗指导; 第二语言教学; 重点高中
A Scheme for English Teachers' Professional Development
--In a specific context in a high school of China
1. Introduction
Professional development is about becoming the best kind of teacher one can be (Underhill, 1986). It is a continuous improvement throughout the whole of one's teaching career. The purpose of this assignment is to consider the options for providing professional development of English teachers in an institutional context, one of the best high schools in Jilin province of China.
This assignment is divided into four parts. The first part defines teachers' professional development and how development comes about. The second part provides a brief description of the context I worked in and am relating the assignment to. The following part outlines the theoretical basis of peer observation and the importance of such an observation scheme. The final part discusses how to implement the scheme and considers the scheme's limitation.
2. Professional development
2.1 Definitions of teacher development
Teacher development has several meanings. For example, Underhill defines it is a continuous process of transforming human potential into human performance, a process that is never finished (1986). In other words, it is a continual improvement process throughout the whole teaching career of teachers.
Teacher training equips new teachers with the skills and knowledge to teach successfully (Penny, 1996). Generally, the new teachers will be fully prepared in planning and preparation, setting learning objectives, assessment, etc. Unlike teacher training, which is a short/compulsory process addressing both knowledge and skills (Head & Taylor, 1997), teacher development draws on individual teacher's own inner resource for development. It is a desire stimulating an individual teacher for his/her professional development. It is motivated by teachers' own questioning of their roles and their duties in teaching in varied situation (Head & Taylor, 1997). According to Rossner, teacher development is about dealing with the needs and wants of the individual teacher in ways that suit that individual (1994). It is the needs about improvement for individual teacher in accordance with the specific situation he/she is working. Because teacher development focuses on individual needs, it is not just to do with language and teaching. Rossner (1992:4) "it's also about language development, counseling skills, assertiveness training, confidence-building, computing, meditation, cultural broadening - almost anything". Depending on the working conditions/desired direction, an individual teacher takes on different specific meanings and forms for his/her professional development. To sum up, teacher development is centered on the self- awareness of individual teacher's needs and desires. "It is a voluntary decision-making process" (Head & Taylor, 1997). 2.2 How professional development comes about
With respect to teacher development, teaching experience is a crucial factor, for much of teacher development is seen as relating to new experiences, new challenges and new opportunities for teachers to broaden their repertoire and take on new responsibilities and challenges. However, experience does not necessarily result in professional development (Tsui, 1998). Some teachers never seem to improve at all or just improve very slowly though they have been at the job for a number of years. For instance, when encountering with some new experience/challenges, some English teachers may consider little about doing some revisions to their previous teaching approaches or gaining some new skill/knowledge. Just like the saying that for some people, eighteen years teaching experience is one year's teaching experience repeated seventeen times. In teachers' professional development, the importance of self-reflection should be emphasized. In Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, self-reflection relates to an individual teacher thinking about what happens in his/her lesson, and thinking about alternative means of achieving goals or aims (Cruickshank & Applegate, 1981). It is a capacity to recognize and monitor the attention one has given to something. Professional development of teachers' goes on through repeatedly critiquing and reflecting on their teaching (Bailey, 2001). According to problems emerging in a variety of situations, English teachers question their teaching approaches and try to find some alternative or better ways of working. They will read books, observe their colleagues, take part in workshops and seminars and perhaps go to conferences. Therefore, professional development is a process whereby teachers continuously evolve in their use, adaptation and application of their skills/approaches throughout their whole careers (Bailey, et, al, 2001).
3. A brief introduction to the school
Before talking about the scheme of professional development, first, I want to describe the specific context of the high school, for which the the scheme is based . I have been an English teacher for one year in Jilin Province Experiment of High School, which is one of the best high schools in Jilin province. The English group of the school consists of 14 teachers. There are eight senior English teachers, 3 regular teachers and 2 novices and one head. The administrative staffs of school as well as the head of English group make the key decision, although they will take some suggestions from the two or three most experienced teachers in the English group. The rest of teachers do most of the teaching task. Generally, one teacher teaches two classes with 12 class-units for each very week. Unlike high schools in other country, the teaching materials are issued officially by Chinese Education Ministry, the highest education office in China. When I was an English teacher in high school, a new kind of coursebook is widely used. Unlike the former coursebook, the new one encourages English teacher to establish learner-center classes instead of goal-center classes. Accordingly, English teachers should do a series of revisions of their curriculum planning, curriculum implementation and curriculum evaluation. Due to the influence of previous teaching experience, some English teachers might not deal with the problems emerging in the classes very well. As a new English teacher, I am not affected by the new coursebook as greatly as those experienced teachers, although I need develop my teaching competency. To evaluate teaching performance of each English teacher, several experts in TESOL were invited to evaluate our language teaching. According to those experts' comments, the performance of most teachers was not satisfactory. Therefore, it is necessary to design a scheme to help most of the English teachers to improve their language teaching in the high school I worked. A fact should be mentioned that almost all the teachers in the school I worked are responsible. They always automatically pursue the professional development in their teaching experience.
4. Peer observation
4.1 Definition of peer observation
The main purpose of the scheme is to assist the professional development of the English teachers in the school I used to work. In connection with the scheme design, it is mainly about how to develop English teachers' teaching performance by peer observation. Peer Observation involves groups of colleagues observing each other's teaching, providing constructive and supportive feedback with the intention of improving and extending their practice (Freeman, 1982). During the course of peer observation, those teachers have observed lessons, and have in their turn been observed. Their roles in these two activities are radically different. When visiting the teaching classes of their colleagues, they are observer, and vice versa.
4.2 The purpose of peer observation
The peer observation in the institution that I am relating the assignment to is designed based on the purpose to encourage self-reflection and self-awareness about the teachers' own teaching approaches (Cosh, 1999). This peer observation focuses on the teacher's own development, rather than on any presumed ability to develop the teaching of their peers. The function of the peer observation in this specific context is to stimulate teachers to reassess their teaching through observing the classes from their peers. For instance, as observers, through deeply exploring his/her colleagues' action, individual teacher may not only arise his/her self-awareness about some existing problems in his/her teaching but also learn some new techniques and skills. And then, his/her will act on or respond to the problems and modify his/her teaching strategies and the methods used (Richards, 1990). For instance, through peer observation those English teachers will develop their understanding about learner-center language teaching process, develop effective teaching approaches used in learner-center class, identify technique and practices that can apply to their own teaching, etc. Therefore, in my teaching context, peer observation is used to stimulate awareness, reflection, and questioning teaching experience, and it also encourages changes and experiments in practice. 4.3 Observation constraints in my teaching context
Some problems should be considered before implementing this peer observation. The most important one is to modify teachers' attitudes to peer observation. In the past, peer observation was frequently carried out for purposes of appraisal or judgement of the observed in the context I used to work. To most of English teachers, the purpose of peer observation is evaluating their teaching performance, rather than stimulating individual's self-reflection. "There is an emphasis on teachers being observed, and being told about their teaching, rather approach than a process of active self-development through reflection, and self-awareness" (Cosh, 1999). Such a kind of peer observation could detrimental both to teacher confidence, and to a supportive teaching environment (Cosh, 1999). Therefore, most of English teachers are unwilling to take part in the peer observation, although they want to improve their teaching approach.
The second problem is about observation training. Observation training may be a part of pre-service for most of teachers in western countries. However, given the fact that almost all the English peer observations are carried out by head and senior teachers, the English teachers in the context I used to work had no relevant experience. While, to make the peer observation effective, those English teachers should have high competency in recording sufficient information as well as classroom procedure analysis in second language teaching. Peer observation is a complex process in the specific context I worked. From broad respect, it concerns some elements like lesson organization, classroom interaction, designing appropriate classroom activities, etc. It also refers to learner-center establishment and so on. From narrow respect, every observer could only concentrate on one or two elements just mentioned. Due to the complication/importance of observation, the observers should be highly trained. Accordingly, related training is essential prior to peer observation. As Richards states, an untrained observer may be overwhelmed by the complexity of what goes on and not be able to focus on important events as they unfold in the classroom (1990). Therefore, all the English teachers should be trained in observation in their spare time.
5. Scheme implement
5.1 Observation model
My peer observation model is designed by taking the needs/interests of each teacher on account. The observation model encourages each teacher to observe classes on areas particularly relevant to his/her concerns and areas of teaching (Cosh, 1999). There could be a bank of questions, criteria, or observation sheets to focus and promote ideas (Wajnryb, 1992). In this observation model, I suggest each teacher use an observation sheet. He/she should fill in the sheet about their idea generation before the observation and record a feedback about what he or she has learnt from the observation on the sheet after the observation. The role of the feedback sheet is necessary both for institutional monitoring of the system, and for full 'reflective' value to be gained from the observation (Cosh, 1999). Based on the schedule of English teachers, a workshop will be held among the teachers having mutual interests one or two times in a month. 5.2 Implementation procedure
The peer observation conducts among the teachers with mutual interests. Given the fact that nearly every English teacher has heavy teaching load (teaching 2 classes with each of them 5 lessons every week, and marking students' homework), it may be impossible for an English teacher to observe several classes. A solution is to allow each teacher to choose and only observe the classes with some areas particularly relevant to his/her own concerns and area of teaching. There is a need for teachers to decide jointly on such factors as who they should observe, what arrangements should be made with the observer, and what the focus should be (Cosh, 1999). For example, a teacher may have confusions about how to teach past tense, he/she may learn related knowledge and pedagogy through observing. Peer observation is to provide resources for teachers' later reflection. Through observing, individual teacher may not only know the method used by other teachers to deal with those problems confusing him/her, but also stimulate him/her to reflect why such methods were applied. And then, his/her will act on or respond to the problems and modify his/her teaching strategies and the methods used (Richards, 1990).
During the observation processes, the observer should not only focus on the areas he/she is interested in, but also get useful information as much as possible. After the observation, the observer should write his/her feedback, which is convenient for insights to be clarified, and development to be effective and shared (Cosh, 1999). During two or three weeks, a workshop will be held among the teachers with the similar interests. With the idea to solve mutual problems, there may be no shortage of common topics in their discussion after classes. They can discuss what they have learnt by peer observation, think about their future plan and so on.
As Richards argues (1990), cooperation is a powerful tool for professional development since the results are shared or practiced collaboratively. By peer observation and collaboration, the observers will explore the essences of some teaching action that they observed and learning something from those actions. After that, they will think about the possibilities to resolve the problems emerging in their teaching classes and accordingly modify his/her teaching strategies and methods used. However, it is important to realize that although the emphasis has shifted to self-development, many teachers will still feel nervous about being observed, and implicit judgments being made about their teaching. It is, therefore, important that teachers should be reassured, consulted, and allowed to feel that they retain an element of control and ownership of the process (Cosh, 1999:25). Thus, the discussion process is used for solve some problems through co-operation, rather than evaluation the teaching performance of other teachers. In addition, the make-decision of whether modifies his/her teaching strategies and teaching methods should be made by individual teacher himself/herself. 5.3Implementation constraint
With respect to the implementation of the observation model, some factors should be considered. The biggest problem is about timetable. For instance, it is possible that teacher A want to observe a specific class of teacher B, while teacher A has course on the same time. Generally, every teacher teaches two classes; accordingly, he/she will teach the same content twice. Although the teacher may do some revision according to the feedback from students, normally, the teaching procedures and teaching approaches are quite similar. In arranging the timetable, the school will try its best to give every teacher at least an opportunity to observe the courses taught by other teachers. Even though, it is possible that there will be some collisions for those teachers like some of them have to teach classes at the same time.
An alternative way for such conditions is to use video, a common technique in the high school I used to work. In connection with video, it mainly used to record the teaching performance of each teacher. The record could be provided to the teachers who are interested in the classes and the teacher observed. For the observers, the video record can provide them some vivid/consequent pictures about teaching procedure. They may get the general picture of the course, even some of them miss the course. For the teachers observed, the video record may be helpful for them to aware about what did really happen in his/her classes. The video record provides them a chance to critically reflect his/her language teaching in classes. Due to the scope limitation, a video could only record part of teaching activities. In fact, the language teaching process is a moving activity. To maximize the interaction with his/her students, the English teacher should not only stay in one place. Sometimes, the teacher's activities may beyond the recorded scope of video camera. It is said by some people that the school should arrange a person to change the recorded scope of video camera, however, based on my experience, such action would move students' attraction from learning to looking the video camera. Therefore, a complete teaching procedure and interaction between teacher and students may be unavailable for the teacher missing the course.
5.4 Two suggestions
As mentioned above, self-reflection is an effective way for teachers' development. And observation is a method to trigger self-reflection of individual teacher. What one reflects is according to the data his/her observed in classes. In other word, observation is the basis for self-reflection, rather than the stimulation for professional development. Like an accepted theory in second language acquisition, input is different from intake. Observation will be helpful only in the condition that English teachers could learn from their observation, namely, constant reflection on their practice.