Center for Teacher Education Research of Beijing Normal University, a key research base for humanities and social sciences in ordinary colleges and universities under the Ministry of Education, has been established for twenty years. The center always adheres to the mission of "Inspiring Teachers with Integrity and Vision", committed to exploring the frontier of teacher education discipline, and always serving the major strategic needs of national high-quality teacher training and team building, focusing on cultivating the urgently needed talents for teacher education research and practice in our country. To cultivate the academic leadership of young scholars among the students in the center, the Fifth Jing Shi Young Scholars Forum on Teacher Education was held on January 3, 2025.

 

This forum included a doctoral student session, an academic master's student session, and a professional master's student session, providing a professional platform for horizontal and diverse exchanges among young scholars in teacher education at the center.

 

Doctoral Student Session

In the morning of January 3, the doctoral student session with the theme of "Future Teachers: Local Narratives and International Dialogues in Teacher Education" started in Room 623 of Yingdong Building. Deputy Dean Zhang Jingjing of the Faculty of Education-BNU expressed her welcome to the participating teachers and students and thanked CTER for building an academic platform for young scholars. Prof. Zhang outlined the current challenges and issues in teacher education as an important topic in the field of education, expecting the center to further serve the professional development of more primary and secondary school teachers across the country and contribute to our educational reform.

In this session, doctoral students and scholars from sub-centers gathered around themes such as artificial intelligence and teacher education, local college teacher development, and international perspectives on teacher education for academic reports. The forum invited Professors Huang Jiali, Ye Juyan, Zhao Ping, and postdoctoral researcher Li Xiaoyan as commenters. The report was hosted by doctoral student Lin Zerun and English professional master's student Li Yiman.

 

During the reporting phase, Yuan Peili reported on "Exploring the Potential Profiles of AI Awareness among Chinese Pre-service Teachers, Influencing Factors, and Its Relationship with TPACK." Based on data from the China Teacher Training and Professional Development Basic Data Platform survey, potential profile analysis method was used to identify six potential categories of pre-service teachers' AI awareness. The study found that pre-service teachers with high AI trust and self-efficacy tend to form high-expectation AI awareness, and high TPACK levels are often associated with higher expectation awareness, and AI expectation awareness may mitigate the negative effects of AI threat awareness.

 

Liu Xu reported on "Research on the Mechanism of Artificial Intelligence Impacting the Innovative Ability of Pre-service Teachers" Based on empirical surveys of 3115 pre-service teachers and using structural equation modeling to test the specific mechanisms of how artificial intelligence affects the innovative ability of pre-service teachers. The study found that both artificial intelligence technology support and school intelligent environment support can significantly positively impact the innovative ability of pre-service teachers, and artificial intelligence efficacy and self-regulated learning play partial positive intermediary roles in the influence of artificial intelligence technology support and school intelligent environment support on the innovative ability of pre-service teachers.

 

Wang Xingzhou reported on "The Relationship between Personality Traits and Course Happiness among Pre-service Teachers: Based on Latent Profile Analysis" Using latent profile analysis to examine the potential types of personality traits and their impact on course happiness among 13741 freshmen from local normal colleges and universities in China. The study found that pre-service teachers have three different types of personality traits: "maladaptive," "adaptive," and "highly adaptive." "Highly adaptive" pre-service teachers possess high emotional stability, social adaptability, and conscientiousness.

 

In the commentary session, Prof. Huang Jiali and Associate Prof. Ye Juyan commented on aspects such as research topics, variable classification, concept definition, model revision and testing. They believed that the research topic is relatively novel to some extent, suggesting further reasonable classification of secondarily driven data variables, clarification and definition of related research variables, and completion of model testing and correction data index reporting work.

 

Grace Hulda reported on "Don't Cry or Express Anger in Public Places: Exploring the Emotional Labor Experiences of Novice Chinese Language Teachers in Cameroon." Through semi-structured interviews with six novice Chinese language teachers, it was found that new teachers follow three types of emotional rules, including occupational, socio-cultural, and personal rules. Novice teachers use strategies of surface acting, deep acting, and natural expression to meet these emotional rules, suggesting regular emotional training and psychological care for new teachers.

 

Belinda reported on "Developing K-12 Teachers' Digital Competencies through Professional Learning Communities: A Qualitative Perspective from Ghana." The study used qualitative data from 17 in-service teachers from three K-12 schools in Ghana, impacting teachers in three areas of digital competence: hardware and software of digital assessment projects, information and data literacy, and communication and collaboration. In the commentary session, Associate Professor Zhao Ping, postdoctoral researcher Li Xiaoyan, and Associate Professor Ye Juyan provided comments. Future research needs to consider how our research framework integrates better with data collection and analysis, reasonably explaining the data and responding to research questions. It is also suggested to integrate the research with teachers' cognition and technical use.

 

Associate Prof. Nan Zichun from the Physical Education College of Xingtai College reported on "Evaluation Research on the Effect of Sports Volunteer Services Empowering Rural School Physical Education Balanced Development" Investigating the effectiveness of sports volunteer activities in empowering rural school physical education balanced development, constructing an indicator system for sports volunteer services empowering rural school physical education development from four dimensions: resources, technology, environment, and emotion, which is of great significance for promoting the balanced development of rural school physical education resources.

 

Liu Ningning from Xingtai College reported on "Collaborative Efforts - Strategies for Enhancing Teaching Abilities of Educators in Weak Local Colleges", taking 160 educator teachers as research objects in the "Normal Education Collaborative Quality Improvement Plan" and investigating the teaching abilities of educator teachers. The study found that educators' teaching abilities still perform poorly in actual work, with low capabilities in research-based teaching, innovative teaching, and teaching demonstration, and difficulty in connecting basic education new curriculum standards concepts with their own teaching.

 

Wang Hongyao reported on "‘Overworked’ - A Grounded Theory Study on the Survival Status of Young College Teachers", using grounded theory to explore the generation mechanism of the phenomenon of "overwork," providing insight into the survival situation and proactive choices of young college teachers under the background of connotative development of higher education. The study found that the phenomenon is triggered by power discipline and influenced by the knowledge acquisition and thinking patterns of young teachers. Young teachers adopt differentiated action strategies of "inconsistent words and deeds," leading to the action result of "non-promotion means leaving."

 

In the expert commentary session, Associate Prof. Ye Juyan, Prof. Huang Jiali, and Associate Pro. Zhao Ping proposed suggestions regarding research logic, theoretical framework, research questions, and future research directions. It was suggested to distinguish between work logic and research logic, align evaluation content closely with the work done, discuss the applicability of theoretical frameworks, focus on the characteristics of local teachers and collaborative quality improvement, refine research questions further, link research questions with educational goals, build a complete evaluation system. Additionally, regarding research on young college teachers, attention should be paid to the intrinsic motivation of academic research among college teachers.

 

Academic Master's Student Session

In the afternoon of the same day, the academic master's student session with the theme of "Teacher Growth and Development: Professional Discussion and Experience Sharing" conducted academic sharing and exchanges, with five academic master's students from the center participating in the reports. Parallel sessions were commented on by Associate Prof. Zhang Huajun, Dr. Wang Kai, and postdoctoral researcher Lin Min, with master's student Li Jingjia serving as host.

 

Five students in the sub-forum respectively reported on issues such as educational internships, learning burnout, generative artificial intelligence, alienation of public classes, and stages of development of outstanding teachers. Expert teachers gave detailed comments, affirming the students' attention to real-world problems, pointing out that the selection of specific research questions should have scientificity, and concept definitions should provide convincing academic explanations for local and policy-related discourses. Regarding the topic of artificial intelligence, the teacher pointed out that the relationship between humans and technology should be clearly defined in the research, distinguishing the special nature of artificial intelligence from general technology in the application of technical philosophy theories. Regarding the issue of the development stages of outstanding teachers, the teacher reminded students to dialectically think about the differences between the five stages of development of outstanding teachers and general teacher development, why they present a continuous spectrum rather than a fluctuating pattern.

 

The center set up a "Senior Students Speak" section based on student needs, where graduated students shared experiences sincerely and meticulously with center students, sharing processes and key points of applying for doctoral programs under the application examination system, applying for overseas doctoral programs, and job hunting experiences in primary and secondary schools and public sectors. At the meeting, center students and expert teachers, senior students had full exchanges.

 

Professional Master's Student Session

Meanwhile, the professional master's student session themed "A Long Journey Begins with a Single Step, Steadfast and Far-reaching" was held in the afternoon. The session invited experts Professors Li Qiong and Liao Wei, postdoctoral researcher Zhou Shenji, Chi Shuling, and Guo Ying to comment on the studies, with Zheng Zijun hosting the reports. The professional master's student session was colorful, with six groups presenting rich topics, novel content, and diversified research methods, showcasing in-depth and detailed research results on various topics. Each group explored topics such as the phenomenon of "marginal people" in middle schools, the current status of teaching Chinese culture in high school English, influencing factors and mechanisms of interdisciplinary teaching competence, implementation status of global understanding education, characteristics and coping strategies of teacher emotional labor, and expressions and approaches of teacher humanistic care in teaching, providing valuable insights for research and practice in the field of education. Expert teachers provided detailed suggestions on aspects such as research topics, research methods, theoretical foundations, research content, and outcome expression, and looked forward to the continued efforts of students in future teaching and research practices. The forum built an academic exchange platform for graduate students, which is of great significance in cultivating students' academic abilities and enhancing comprehensive qualities.