Theory Construction of Teacher's Personal Practice Based on Professional Inquiry: Process, Principle, and Strategy

In the pursuit of building a country strong in education, the foremost task is to cultivate high-quality teachers. The quintessential traits of such teachers are characterized by possessing a distinctive, comprehensive, practice-oriented, highly refined, and creative personal practical theory. This study starts with the issue of how primary and secondary school teachers construct their personal practical theories, applies Grounded Theory and exploratory case studies to investigate the complete process and theoretical principles of teacher's construction of personal practical theory. Based on 10 cases of teacher's personal practical theory construction, using in-depth interviews and Grounded Theory analysis, the process for constructing teacher's personal practical theories based on professional inquiry is established. Thus, the core practice in the construction of personal practical theory for teachers, "research-oriented practice", is revealed, and seven typical strategies that promote the construction of teacher's personal practical theoryis summarized. By reflecting on the process of teacher's professional growth, the theoretical and practical logic of constructing teacher's personal practical theory has been discovered, and a "practice-professional inquiry" orientation for teacher learning has been proposed. The research indicates that all teachers can establish a systematic perspective for thinking about problems through the construction of their personal practical theory, and can transform unconscious actions into purposeful practices, developing deep thinking about the essence and principles of education issues. In this way, teachers can reconstruct teaching theories, develop personal teaching expertise and characteristics through exploring teaching problems, there by promoting the gradual development of educatortype of teachers.