The Guidelines to Improve Professional Development for Teachers in Rural Primary Schools in Yunnan Province, China

Abstract

The research objectives are as follows: 1) To study the current status of the professional development of rural primary school teachers in Yunnan Province, China; 2) To design the guidelines for improving professional development for rural primary school teachers in Yunnan Province, China. The sample group of this study was stratified through random sampling from 380 rural primary school teachers across 8 rural primary schools in Yunnan Province, using the Krejcie and Morgan table. Additionally, 25 managers of rural primary school teachers from the same 8 schools were purposively sampled. The research instruments comprise questionnaires and semi structured interviews, and the data analysis includes descriptive statistics and content analysis. Research results on the teacher professional development of rural primary school teachers in Yunnan Province were high (x ̅= 4.09, S.D. = 0.65) in three aspects.1) Professional ethics was at a high level (x ̅= 4.33, S. D.=0.71), 2) professional skill was at a high level (x ̅= 4.01, S. D.=0.60), and 3) professional knowledge was at a high level (x ̅= 3.92, S.D.=0.65). The guidelines for improving the teacher professional development of rural primary school teachers in Yunnan Province include consisted of five aspects as follows: 1) strengthen the construction of the teaching workforce, 2) improve evaluation and incentive mechanisms, 3) increase government and community support, 4) enhance teachers' awareness of professional development, and 5) improve teachers' sense of professional responsibility.