Facilitating EFL teachers’ professional development through CLS of English literature instruction

Abstract

PurposeAgainst the backdrop of China’s curriculum reform, this paper explores how a Chinese lesson study (CLS) of English literature instruction in a senior high school promotes the teacher participant’s professional development (PD) in teacher beliefs and emotions, teaching contents, teaching approaches and learner outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted the CLS approach to explore the teacher participant, Lily’s PD. Three rounds of CLS of short fiction instruction were conducted. Triangulated data including interviews, reflection journals, discussion notes and lesson materials were collected for directed qualitative content analysis.FindingsThe results show that through the CLS, Lily has (1) changed her beliefs about the curriculum and literature instruction, and improved her emotion management and become more resilient and motivated; (2) shifted her teaching focus from forms and facts to meanings; (3) adopted a more learner-centred and inquiry-based teaching approach and (4) received satisfactory learner outcomes including increased learner participation and quality output. The follow-up class observations suggest the sustainability of such development.Originality/valueThis study applies and validates a conceptual framework of teachers’ PD, and establishes the value of promoting curriculum reform and facilitating EFL teachers’ PD through CLS and literature instruction.

English learning burnout: Scale validation in the Chinese context

“…Thus, Chinese English education, including senior high school English education, has gradually altered to pursue a quality-oriented, communication-oriented and student-oriented approach ( Yu and Wang, 2009 ; Zhang and Luo, 2022 ). From a macroscopic perspective, against the background of the new basic education curriculum reform in China 5 , cultivating students’ key competencies has become a new and permanent task for education in all subjects and at all academic levels.…”

“…Under the guidance of the macro policies (e.g., the new curriculum reform and the double reduction policy), Chinese senior high school English teachers have also reformed their classroom teaching activities from the micro perspective. They have attempted to reduce students’ burden of homework and training outside of school, create a more relaxing and pleasant English classroom environment for students, improve classroom teaching efficiency and enhance students’ English learning outcomes ( Zhang and Liu, 2014 ; Zhang and Luo, 2022 ). Therefore, in the context of reducing the burden on English learners and providing quality-oriented English education in China, senior high school students have faced less English learning burden, workload and stress in and outside English classrooms.…”

Connecting EFL curriculum reforms with teacher and student learning: insights from two lesson studies

“…Lesson study (LS) has been increasingly acknowledged as an effective approach for teachers’ professional development (Willems and van den Bossche, 2019) in various contexts, such as in the US, the UK, China, etc (e.g. Dudley, 2013; Uştuk and de Costa, 2020; Zhang and Luo, 2022).…”