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The implementation of the new curriculum has provided space for teacher professional development, but at the same time teachers have great pressures because of the changes and challenges. On the one hand, they embrace the new curriculum with enthusiasm in the hope of improving their professional skills and sense of achievement; on the other hand, in response to the overloaded examinations, they regard the new curriculum as an extra burden, from which a sequence of problems and contradictions have arisen.
Due to the situation mentioned above, the researcher have studied teacher professional development in the context of senior English teachers. The aim of the study is to investigate the present situations of English teachers’ professional development, in order to find out existing problems of senior school English teachers’ development, and to try to offer possible solutions for the problems in Henan Province. The researcher puts forward proposals to improve English teachers’ professional. This study plans to urge the English teachers to change teaching concept to meet the requirements of education in the new curriculum reform.
The thesis has both the theory value and practical significance for senior school English language education in Henan Province:
In the first place, the thesis is encouraging to enhance the understanding of the teacher professional development, which provides the theoretical bases for their professional development.
In the second place, it is helpful to provide methods and strategies which promote English teachers’ professional development for the educator and provide the action basis for promoting teacher professional development.
Thirdly, it may improve high school English teachers’ in-service training and the continuing education work effectively.
II. Literature Review
What is meant by professional development for teachers? Many educational theorists and experts have made explorations in many aspects of how teachers are challenged to improve the efficiency of their teaching．while at the same time giving all students all equal chance for their accomplishment．Hargreaves (1992：108)observes that English Teachers’ Professional Development(ETPD) consists of alterations in curriculum materials，instructional practices and behaviors，beliefs and understandings on the part of teachers involved in given innovations．Stallings (1989：86) demonstrates how ETPD is connected with changes in teachers’ practices concerning about aspects such as transformation of knowledge，teachers as researchers，participation in cooperative groups and so on．But moreover，changing language teachers’ thinking is the basic requirement for ETPD．It is necessary to study about teachers’ thinking，which can broaden the contents of ELT theories and practical applications in teaching．
Teacher development is a hot debated issue in the western educational field．The core of teacher development, “reflection and development”, can be traced back to the twentieth century, when Duwei first presented his theory．The conception had exerted great influence on the whole development of education in the west．In foreign language teaching，professional development refers to the ongoing and consistent procedures in language teachers’ professional development in knowledge，thinking and teaching effectiveness. Schuk (2003：2) defined professional development as those processes that improve the job related knowledge，skills，or attitudes of school employees．In these definitions，special stress is laid on teaching experience and expertise．
The following definitions，however, lay much emphasis on the personal growth aspect．Kathleen (2004：1 8) defined professional development as an ongoing learning process in which teachers engage voluntarily to learn how best to adjust their teaching to the learning needs of their students．Dewey (1993：5) stated that development in education is a process designed to foster personal and professional growth for inpiduals within a respectful，supportive，positive organizational climate having as its ultimate aim better learning for students and continuous，responsible self-renewal for educators and schools. In this study English teachers’ professional development is viewed as the process of continuous professional learning that teachers engage in. It is a lifelong process “that begins with preservice teacher’s preparation and spans the entire career of the foreign language teachers”．Head and Taylor define development with just two words :“change and growth”．