A New Professional Development Program: Supporting Primary School English Language Teachers to Implement the National English Language Curriculum Standards in China

The enactment of the Chinese national English Language Curriculum Standards through task-based approaches has greatly challenged teachers' conventional pedagogical practices. Despite widespread recognition of the importance of professional development programs in facilitating the process of teacher change, there has been little research in the plan, enactment and outcome of such programs. This study, therefore, investigates a process of designing, implementing and evaluating a new program for primary school English language teachers in China. The research framework of design studies was employed to help achieve this program. The results suggest that using design studies for developing teacher development programs, through mechanism of professional learning communities, can result in effective teacher change."The results of the research are therefore, to my mind, robust. Those of us who have been involved in teacher professional development in China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region will welcome the theoretical and practical insights afforded by the study when it is published"(David Nunan in the thesis examination report, 2009).