Language Teacher’s Information Literacy in the ICT context

With the rapid development of Information and Communication Technology(ICT),the modern information and communica tion media have been changing the rationale of learning and teaching.Under such circumstances,a person’s,especially an educator’s in formation literacy plays an important role in their personal and professional development.This essay discusses the influence of the new challenge on EFL(English as a foreign language) teachers’professional development.EFL teachers should be fully empowered to be infor mation literate language educators in the curriculum innovation of TEFL(teaching English as a foreign language).It is suggested that EFL teachers’awareness,attitudes,and personal needs should be taken into account in the process of integrating ICT into their professional practice and self-development.     

Declining quality of Nigerian university graduates： Revitalizing quality assurance through foreign agencies＇ support

Increasing and uninterrupted supply of high-level manpower has become a fundamental pre-requisite for social and economic development of any nation. Hence, the direction of the university education in Nigeria is intensifying and diversifying its programmes for the development of high-level manpower within the context of the needs of the nation. To achieve this, the government of Nigeria initiated higher education policy reforms that intended to bring its university system more in line with international good practices. It is however disheartening to note that the quality of university graduates in Nigeria has continued to decline due to inadequate funding. The focus of this paper is to examine how foreign agencies＇ support would help to increase the quality of Nigerian university graduates.     

Analysis on the Strategies for the Autonomous Development of English Teachers in High Schools

The professional development of English teachers in high schools is not only a hot focus of teachers’ education, but also an important turning point in the students’ English learning. English teachers are constantly improving their own personal quality and teaching effect under their autonomous development model and goal. It is necessary for English teachers in high schools to rethink and change their own teaching methods, transform the educational ideas, and make educational methods innovative. Meanwhile, they are required to continuously improve their own teaching practice ability. Thus, development and innovation can be unceasingly sought by them in the process of thinking, criticizing, and denying. In addition, the autonomous factors restricting the continuous professional development must be changed. In this paper, the strategies for the autonomous development of English teachers in high schools are discussed according to the requirements for the professional development so as to produce profound significance to the sustainable development of the teachers.     

Emergy-analysis based approaches to develop circular economy in the Three Gorges Reservoir area

The eco-environment and the condition of economic development in the Three Gorges area were evaluated with emergy indices calculated with the statistic data of the years from 1997 to 2005. The rising environmental loading ratio indicates an increasing pressure of economic activities on the environment and the economic development achieved at the cost of over-exploitation of resources and environment deterioration. The net emergy yield ratio implies that the economic system of this area was a self-contained, resource-export-oriented type at a relatively low level of technology. The emergy sustainability index of about 6 implies the economy of this area was under developed but had a potential to grow. According to the results of the emergy analysis, circular economy should be taken as the economic model of this region's development. This economic system should be water-resource-oriented and more open, make combined use of local and extraneous resources, and have an updated systematic structure with emphasis on emergy recirculation.     

Curriculum Discourse and Foreign Language Teachers’Professional Development

The significance and status of the teachers’professional development make the education system and the society pay more and more attentions.The article elaborates the internal contact of curriculum discourse and teachers’professional development from a few respects such as the rationality of curriculum discourse,the long-term nature of the teachers’professional development and many factors affecting the teachers’professional development.The article also analyzes the external and internal factors influencing Tibet foreign language teachers’professional development,and puts forward the corresponding countermeasures in the light of these problems.     

A model formative assessment strategy to promote student-centered self-regulated learning in higher education

Adult learners are already involved in the process of self-regulation; hence, higher education institutions should focus on strengthening students＇ self-regulatory skills. Self-regulation can be facilitated through formative assessment. This paper proposes a model formative assessment strategy that would complement existing university teaching, and can be used in higher education to promote student-centered self-regulated learning with minimal effort and time input from teachers. Based on this model, a real-world teaching example on writing an essay as a challenge task has also been developed. This model strategy incorporates Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick＇s seven principles of good feedback practice that promotes self-regulation.     

Virtual Learn=ng Community as New Approach of Teacher Professional Development——Reflective Research into an eLearning Program of Intercultural Collaboration between China and UK

Among the current reform measures undertaken in Chinese K-12 education, to adopt New Curricula and to improve ICT application in teaching are both decisive, however, the lack of qualified trainers is handicapping the professional development of over 10 millions in-service teachers. One of eChina ～ UK projects in collaboration between universities from both sides is designed to develop virtual learning community （VLC） among in-service teachers and explore from pedagogic perspective how to conduct VLC. In accordance with reflective learning and collaborative learning, three online learning modules have been jointly created by Chinese and UK educational specialists, and one unit from each module has been piloted by a group of senior teachers. Through analyzing the processes of course design and pilot, supported by quantitative and qualitative research into the experiences of pilot participants, the paper identifies some core factors influencing the quality of VLC and suggests that more attention should be given to the interactive learning process within VLC rather than to create well-structured learning materials before hand. It has also analyzed VLC as a promising approach to support professional development of in-service teachers from the perspective of continuous improvement process. There is much to be researched into the approach of VLC.     

Intercultural Competence in Theroy and Practice of Language Teaching

Intercultural competence,another term for cross-cultural competence,actuallly,has a confusing defination,as it has been searched by a wide variety of acdemic approaches and professional fields.In general,intercultural competence is a part of communication competence,and it refers to a kind of ability to communicate successfully with people of other cultures.As TESOL teachers,who would be seen as intercultural speakers or mediators,they should bring the concept of intercultual competence to the language classroom and culture teaching.     

How to be a Good Observer in English Class

How to improve the level of English teaching has always been a problem for university English teachers.The paper suggests the listeners should change the traditional listening methods and pay more attention to the following four ways.To be a good observer and commentator,so as to help the teacher to improve their English educational quality and better serve the students with high quality and high skills.     

TEACHNJ： An Evaluation of Two Years of Implementation

In July 2009, the Obama administration lauched its $4.35 billion Race to the Top （RTT） Fund, providing states with competitive grants in an effort to reform education. One of the main conditions of this program was to award educational innovation. With this in mind, states enacted new legislation in the hopes of attracting more funding for their proposed programs. Although there were many levels of reform targeted by the RTT, of significance to this research is the emphasis placed on improving teacher effectiveness and measuring teacher performance via evaluation systems. The Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey （TEACHNJ） Act was adopted by the New Jersey legislature in August 2012 with the intent to raise student achievement by improving the quality of instruction. This research explores the impact the TEACHNJ Act has on teacher evaluations and professional development. A survey was administered to 1,235 public school teachers in New Jersey to ascertain teacher perceptions of the： （a） evaluation system in their school; （b） level of communication between teachers and administrators; and （c） availability, frequency, and effectiveness of professional development opportunities. The response rate was 21%. We found that formal evaluations are conducted infrequently with a varying degree of accuracy and impact. Nearly half of the teachers indicated that formal evaluations did not lead to improvements in their classroom. A majority of teachers questioned the administrative value of formal teacher evaluations, in particular the rewards and sanctions associated with the outcome of evaluations and a concem that poor performers were not sanctioned nor were effective teachers rewarded. We found that teachers perceive the greatest value to professional development, which is derived from peer mentoring and observations. We also found that professional development is the most effective when it is offered onsite, embedded in the classroom, continuous, and sustained over ti     

Discussion on the Cultivation of Nursing Faculties Based on the Development of Nursing Education in China

The Chinese higher nursing education has developed fast. People＇s opinions to it have changed. In the future, it will show the developmental trends as follows. The scale of higher nursing education will be enlarged and educational levels will be improved continuously. The professional characteristics will be further focused on in nursing curriculum system. Teaching methods will be diversified to help the students to improve their abilities. The internationalization will be the developmental trend of nursing education. The development of nursing education puts forward higher demands for the faculties. How to cultivate the higher-quality nursing faculties has received increasing attention over the past few years as a common problem with serious consequences for the qualities of the students. It needs to equip the human resources of nursing teachers to be perfect, establish the academic faculty echelon and intensify the general qualities of nursing faculties. The nursing teachers should improve their theoretical and educational levels, develop the teaching capabilities, possess the capabilities of scientific research, enhance the clinical practical capabilities, improve the application abilities of the foreign language and cultivate the humanistic qualities to train the excellent students.     

Preliminary Study on a Teaching Model of the College English Course Based on WebQuest

This paper is a report on an introduction to the teaching model of college English course based on WebQuest, in which learners learn English in a process of using the World Wide Web to solve a problem. It’s one of the latest uses of technology gaining popular status in education. It is characterized as a computer-based, student-centered inquiry learning activity. The WebQuest has become prominent in many educational areas and has received considerable attention from teachers and educators. That web-based self-access learning should be integrated into college English courses is strongly advocated by the Ministry of Education in China and a new teaching model of college English course based on WebQuest will become a good complement for the traditional English teaching models.     

Fulfilling the Promise of Professional Development

It is ironical that developments in the field of education call for teachers to differentiate instruction as a pre-requisite for effective learning,while teacher education and continuing professional development adhere to a one-size-fits-all philos- ophy. In general,professional development initiatives are part of'reform packages'with decisions about what,when,and     

Curriculum Evaluation for English Majors and Its Adjustments in Reading Instruction

The mandate of education lies in its curriculum. Course construction not only has a direct effect on teaching quality,but also is an important mark of a university’s overall teaching level. To cater to a university’s individual needs, the university and the teacher should be able to effectively evaluate the New National English Curriculum, and then further work out their own school-based curriculum development. Therefore, this thesis evaluates the application of the New Curriculum for English Majors in Reading instruction. Finally some possible solutions are addressed to better suit its teaching context.     

Cultivating Students’ Cultural Awareness inEnglish Teaching

With the fast development of Chinese economy and society,the communication between China and foreign countries has been more and more frequent.And China is a country where English is taught as a foreign language.Therefore cultural differences have become more and more significant in English teaching.Both language teachers and students should be aware of the differences between eastern and western culture in their teaching and study.     

Puppets in science lessons Experiences and stories from Norwegian teachers who are using puppets

Ten teachers, from preschool to secondary school have tried out puppets as a stimulus in science lessons. Data were gathered by teachers answering a questionnaire and by interviewing the teachers. We report what teachers have experienced by using puppets in science classrooms and in science activities in preschools. Data indicate that the puppet can be used to stimulate science both in preschool, primary school and secondary school. Probably the puppet must be used in different ways in preschool and primary school than in secondary school to get the pupils to accept them. This pilot study has given us courage and ideas to start a following-up study in using puppets in science.     

Prospective teachers＇ skills in planning and applying learning-teaching process

With the reconstruction of the curricula in Turkey, important changes have existed in the activities of education and teaching. That is why it has become an important case of research to determine how much student teachers know about the process of learning-teaching. This study aims to show how are student teachers capable are of planning and applying the process of learning-teaching effectively. Thus, eighteen senior student teachers from the Department of the Primary School Mathematics Teaching at the Education Faculty of a university in Turkey were interviewed in a semi-constructed way. At the end of the study, it was determined that the student teachers knew the activities in the new primary school mathematics curricula, most of them found themselves competent enough to prepare materials and apply them, but they were not competent enough to use mathematics software although they knew them and they were insufficient in the approaches which the new primary school curricula are based on. In light of the results acquired from the study, it is suggested that the student teachers should be taught to use worksheets at the different stages of the lessons through exercises and also they should be informed of how to use the computer programs and the approaches on which the new primary school curricula are based in the environment of learning-teaching.     

Teacher's Professional Ethics

Teachers play an important role in society,whose career is considered to be the most glorious one under the sun.They have deep and lifelong influence on students and the prosperity of a country and even the bright future of the whole world.Teacher should be a person with great virtue that sets good examples for the students.However,nowadays,there exist various problems about teacher’s ethics due to complex social,economical,cultural or personal issues.It’s urgent and imperative for teachers to learn and improve professional ethics to be a better mentor.This paper begins with the definition of ethics,emphasizes the importance of teachers’professional ethics,talks about current situation in this area,analyzes the reasons why there are immoral problems about teachers and suggests some practical strategies on how to improve it.     

The problems of the current spoken English teaching and possible solutions

With the development of the soceity,The importance of English has been shown in various aspects of our life,especially spoken English.Therefore,The burden fallen on the shoulders of English teachers has become more and more heavy,So,finding out some effective measures to deal with the problems of the current spoken English teaching should be the one of the major tasks teachers should do     

University teachers＇ approaches to teaching and their pedagogical use of ICTs： A comparative case study of Finland,Japan and India

The purpose of this study was to explore what salient characteristics can be found in some university teachers＇ approaches to teaching in Finland, Japan and India, and in what ways university teachers in Finland, India and Japan use ICTs （information and communication technologies） in their own teaching. Furthermore, this study aimed to investigate what ICT applications these same teachers use in their teaching. The data were collected via an electronic survey and interviews. The participants （N=21） were university teachers from Finland （N=8）, Japan （N=I0） and India （N=3）. Their approaches to teaching were explored by applying the ATI （approaches to teaching inventory） and its modified version focusing on the use of ICTs in teaching. The study reported in this paper was a pilot study, thus the results are based on the limited number of respondents. The ATI and ATI ICT subscales and ICT inventory applied in this study have been confirmed to be valid. The university teachers in Japan and Finland differed in their approaches to teaching： The Finnish teachers scored higher on the CCSF （conceptual change orientated, student-focused） approach to teaching than the Japanese teachers, while the Japanese teachers scored higher on the ITTF （information transmitting, teacher-focused） approach to teaching. Two Indian teachers were classified as having a teacher-focused approach to teaching, while the third was classified as having a student-focused approach to teaching. The teachers＇ differences in their use of ICTs related more to their disciplinary status than to their cultural background.