Study on the Internal Driving Force for the Autonomous Professional Development

Abstract. Education reforms of primary courses have been bringing a great challenge to the educational fields in china, while teachers’ autonomous professional development is viewed as an important guarantee for the school educational and teaching reforms. As English Course is one of the Three Core Subjects of the primary education in China, these English teachers’ training and their sustained development have great foundational and significant meanings for the qualities of the primary education and the talents of our country in the future. Taking college English language teachers as the researching subjects and based on the Questionnaire of Teacher Autonomy in Professional Development, this article analyzes the result of the purposes of teacher autonomy in college English language teaching in Southwest Petroleum University, and sorts out the internal and external driving forces for college English language teachers’ autonomous professional development in China at the present stage. Moreover, it tries to point out that only all the external driving forces are transformed into internal driving forces for teachers personally could they be ultimately internalized into inexhaustible driving force for teachers’ autonomous professional development and life-long learning.

Key words: College English Language Teacher; Autonomous Professional Development; Internal Driving Force

1. Introduction

As early as in 1966, Suggestions on Teachers' Position, published by the International Labor Organization and UNESCO, clearly shows the article of "teaching should be regarded as profession". Thus, the professional position of teaching occupation was determined on the "law" for the first time. To the early 1980s, Holec clearly proposed the concept of learner autonomy. Since then, the autonomous professional development of teachers was focused in the studies of learners’ autonomy, and also some studies have proved that teacher autonomy is the precondition of learner autonomy (2004, Cao Gongxia).

In 2003, Qiquan ZHONG used to show that China's current basic education curriculum reform had resulted in huge challenges to the educational world, and one of the biggest challenges is "teacher professionalism". As teachers play an important role in the current curriculum reform, the teachers of high professional degree should be as the implementers of the new curriculum to guide the new curriculum. Nevertheless, the autonomous professional development of teachers is still affected by the materials, spirits, and other factors.

2. The driving force for the autonomous professional development of English teachers in institutions

of higher learning

In this paper, the autonomous professional development of English teachers in institutions of higher learning as the purpose of the Questionnaire Survey on Teachers' Autonomous Professional Development is specifically analyzed by choosing 55 English teachers from Southwest Petroleum University as the research objects and based on the result of the Survey. The survey options about the autonomous professional development of English teachers in institutions of higher learning as the purpose of the Questionnaire Survey are as follows: A. to promote of the title and position or improve income and reputation; B. to improve the professional level and teaching ability; C. to help and improve the students' autonomous learning ability; D. to realize personal value; E. others; F. unclear. Score scale was used as the survey method in this questionnaire, and the participants were allowed to choose the options the most fitting to their own real ideas in the survey. Option E was a half-open question (E. My other purposes to make autonomous professional development), and the participants would provide an answer according to the actual conditions and the real intention (it was also reasonable for them to provide no answers). In table 1, the survey results of the five options for the autonomous professional development English teachers in institutions of higher learning as the purpose are shown (except E).

In the survey result (see table 1), the mean score of question A was 1.80, namely, 55 objects tended to generally agree their purpose of carrying out autonomous professional development was the attraction from materials or reputations, and this was the external material driving force; the mean score of question B was 1.36, namely, 55 objects tended to agree their purpose of carrying out autonomous professional development was improving their own professional level and teaching ability, and this was the inner spiritual driving force; the mean score of question C was 1.55, namely, 55 objects tended to generally agree their purpose of carrying out autonomous professional development was helping improve students' autonomous learning ability, and this was the external non-individual interest driving force; the mean score of question D was 1.36, namely, 55 objects tended to agree their purpose of carrying out autonomous professional development was realizing the personal value, and this was the internal spiritual driving force (self-efficacy); the mean score of question F was 4.45, namely, 55 objects tended to disagree their purpose and motivation of carrying out autonomous professional development was unclear. In addition, 16 students among the total 55 objects only provided an answer for question E, and the answers are as shown in table 2.

According to the study data about the autonomous professional development of English teachers in institutions of higher learning as the purpose of the Questionnaire Survey on Teachers' Autonomous Professional Development, the driving forces for the autonomous professional development of English teachers in China’s institutions of higher learning can be divided into internal driving force and external driving force. The internal driving force refers to the internal spiritual driving force, which is the existing intense awareness of teachers in autonomous development in the process of professional development. For example, the mental awareness in self-improvement and self-development are teachers’ achievement driving force for the self-development. The external driving force includes external material driving force and external non-individual interest driving force, while the external material driving force refers to the economic income improvement and social status promotion considered by teachers on the road of carrying out the autonomous professional development, and the external non-individual interest driving force refers to the possible benefits (the most direct interests of students) from teachers to the society and others in the process of carrying out the autonomous professional development. Based on the result of the questionnaire survey, the driving forces for the autonomous professional development of English teachers in China’s institutions of higher learning can be classified as table 3 (E’s "realize personal value" was the same to D’s, so it should be deleted).

In the survey result (see table 3), internal driving forces played a leading role in the process of teachers' autonomous professional development, namely, the main purpose of teachers to carry out the autonomous professional development was to meet satisfy the inherent demands of them.

3. The internal driving forces for the autonomous professional development of English teachers in institutions of higher learning

Internal driving force sources from the field of dynamics research. Through a certain amount of investigation and research, Xiufang ZHANG divided internal driving force into three parts from the perspective of morphology: cognitive driving force, self-improvement driving force, and affiliated internal driving force. Cognitive driving force is to see knowledge acquisition and success pursuit as the goal, and it is the most stable and the most important internal motive; it is related to the learning purpose and the cognitive interests, namely, cognitive driving force promote individual’s learning initiative if an individual comes to clearly recognize their own learning purpose and meaning. Self-improvement driving force is a kind of external motivation, and promotes learners to initiatively improve the individual learning ability or the ability to work for winning the promotion of the position and satisfying the self-esteem. Affiliated driving force is also a kind of external motivation, which is a demand of individuals for winning the praise or recognition of the individual such as parents, teachers, leaders, or the peers. In the survey, the internal driving forces for the autonomous professional development of English teachers in institutions of higher learning are generally classified as follows:

In the survey result (see table 4), the cognitive driving force was the most significant among all internal driving forces for the autonomous professional development of English teachers in institutions of higher learning, namely, knowledge acquisition and successful achievements were seen by teachers as the main goal of the autonomous professional development, so as to promote their ongoing professional development; self-improvement driving force was secondary, namely, teachers saw the self-improvement as the starting point for acquiring the social status promotion and self-esteem satisfaction in the process of autonomous professional development; affiliated driving force promoted teachers to obtain recognition and praise for the autonomous professional development. In addition, the above three driving forces complemented each other and had an intersection from table 4. The purpose of "to improve their professional level and teaching ability" was taken for example: a cognitive driving force emerged if an individual improved the professional level and teaching ability completely for personal interests or learning; self-improvement driving force emerged if an individual desires to win social status or satisfy personal self-esteem; affiliated internal driving force emerged if an individual understood it as acquiring the recognition and respect from the elder, leaders, or peers. Thus, it is really difficult to clearly identify the attributes of the internal driving force.

In this survey on teachers’ autonomous professional development as the purpose, the external driving forces include “to promote of the title and position or improve income and reputation”, “to help and improve the students' autonomous learning ability”, “to set up a good example for their own children”, “to improve the quality of life, have a better career, and lay a foundation for the future career and motherland prosperity”, etc. All these were external driving forces from the surface, but "self-improvement driving force" and "affiliated driving force" in internal driving forces were also external motivations. However, these external driving forces can be converted into teacher's personal internal driving force if necessary.

4. Conclusion

Since the mid 1990s, teacher autonomy has been applied to foreign language teacher education and teacher development with a gradual step. At present, teachers' autonomous professional development has become a study focus in the fields such as current normal education, and especially teacher lifelong education, lifelong learning, and development. However, the most fundamental power to promote teachers' autonomous professional development is internal driving force, namely, cognitive driving force, self-improvement driving force, and affiliated internal driving force.

5. Acknowledgement

The "twelfth five-year" Planning Project of Sichuan Province’s Philosophy and Social Sciences Research In 2013: Investigation on the Current Metacognitive Capability of English Teachers in Sichuan Institutions of Higher Learning and the Countermeasure Study (SC13WY19).

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