THE STUDY ON THE FEASIBLE STRATEGIES ON ESTABLISHING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SCHOOLS-CASE STUDY OF PRESCHOOLS IN TAIWAN

Teachers’ professional development has been an essential issue highly focused on . Not only because teachers’ influences on their students are profound, but also for their roles of being behavior models in the society. Teacher professional development has the character of multiple due to the various aspects of profession and different methods of development. But for teachers’ profession, the important element which never changes is lifelong learning. Teachers need to be well-educated on the professional basics on the pre-service stage and to be in the habit of learning actively on the in-service stage. Also, teachers must improve their professional capability according to the job needs, career plants, school environment and social expectations, so as to be teachers with high qualification.

The Professional Development School (PDS) values teacher development on the pre-service, intern and in-service stages. PDS can provide suitable courses and cultivating methods to meet the needs for teachers on these three different stages. It also matches the concept of lifelong learning for teachers. In addition, PDS combines the resources among Center for Teacher Education in university and other schools to cultivate teachers. By practicing theories in actual situations and systematizing the methods of professional development, PDS can make teachers’ profession to be more qualified for the working demands and meets the expectations from the society. Therefore, all the Centers for Teacher Education in university and other schools are putting efforts on the idea of establishing the professional development schools, hoping to build a model pattern to help teachers improve their professional capabilities.

Taiwan has carried out the “Law of Teacher Education” in 1994. Since then, the system of cultivating teachers transferred from one-way to multiple. Because of the problems of the quality and amount of teachers, the law and teacher-cultivating system become public concerns in recent years. People have turned their attitude from anticipating into questioning, which indicates that the law and teacher-cultivating system must be examined. Meanwhile, it also shows the public regard teachers’ profession seriously and highly. In order to promote teachers’ capability and to build their professional images, it is a major educational issue nowadays to establish professional development schools.

This study takes three preschools in Taiwan as examples to discover the feasible strategies on establishing professional development schools. These strategies include four aspects:
1. The Center for Teacher Education in university works on preschool teachers’ professional development.
2. The Center for Teacher Education in university helps promote the professional image of a preschool.
3. The preschool promotes the students’ professional capability for the Center for Teacher Education in university.
4. The cooperation of the Center for Teacher Education in university and preschool on educational innovation and transformation.

Through this study, researcher wants to find out a good way for both the in-service teachers and students of Center for Teacher Education to develop their professions. Furthermore, to promote the preschool teachers’ quality and the whole educational environment.