Education

p-ISSN: 2162-9463     e-ISSN: 2162-8467

2011;  1(1): 1-5

doi: 10.5923/j.edu.20110101.01

Open Class–an Important Component of Teachers’ in-Service Training in China

Copyright © 2011 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

Researches on teachers’ training and practice have reached an agreement that incorporating teacher collaboration with teaching practice helps teachers learn and as a result produces effective teaching. However, nationwide in the US, most of teachers still work alone and have no opportunities to work collaboratively with other teachers. This norm of teaching practice needs to be changed in order to improve quality of teaching. As an in-service training tool, open class is introduced to provide a vision of possible change in teacher training in the US. What is open class? How is open class structured to improve teachers’ teaching? What are the effects of open classes on teachers’ professional development? Based on the data of twenty interviews with the teachers in China, this article provides a picture how open class as an important component of teachers’ in-service training works effectively on improving teachers’ teaching in China. This model of open class is worth to be considered and tried on in the U.S. teachers’ in-service training.

Keywords: Open Class, Teaching Research, Teacher Collaboration, Teaching Competition, In-Service Training

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