The Implementation of the National Professional Standard for K-12 Teachers, 2012 (NPST) at Regional and Local Level in China: A Case Study of Regional Teacher Professional Development Standards Implementation in Qingyang District, Chengdu, China

Abstract

The Ministry of Education of P. R. China published National Professional Standards for K-12 Teachers (NPST) in 2012. Guiding by the standards and the recommendations for its implementation, provincial and municipal governments across China have carried out education reforms, focusing on institution and mechanism innovation, in order to realize the regulation and guidance role of the national standards. This paper starts with recent educational reforms for implementing Qingyang District Teacher Professional Development Standards,2012(QDTPDS-2012) issued by Qingyang District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, a model of successful education reform in southwest China, and continue to make a comparison of teachers’ awareness, influences on teachers and schools, and implementation process of NPST and QDTPDS-2012 in Qingyang District by means of delivering questionnaires in teachers and interviewing with local school authorities, teacher educators, and education researchers; especially focuses on implementation process and approaches of QDTPDS-2012. The survey shows that the core value and principles of NPST are embodied in QDTPDS-2012; and QDTPDS-2012, as regional teacher professional development standards, is much more practical and feasible than NPST. In light of these findings, some implementation principles of national teacher professional standards in China, such as unifying objectives, implementing regionally, clarifying standards, innovating curriculums, emphasizing practice, making operational planning, establishing supporting system and adopting multi-evaluation approaches, are proposed in this paper.