Abstract: Teaching is a critical arena for teacher development. As teaching is viewed as the inheritance of experience, so is experience recognized as of great significance in teacher development. Nevertheless, this runs the risk of empiricism and instrumentalism. Perceived as reflective practice activities, teaching helps to establish teacher’s professional identity, but tends to result in narrow “professionalism”. Teaching, as a process of life education, focuses on the existing life of teachers and students and the awakening of life value, integrating teachers’ life experience and practice and teaching activities. Further, teachers, students and knowledge experience develop into an mutually permeating structure. Researches on teaching and teacher development should deal with not only the inheritance of experience but also life education.

Key words: teacher development, experience inheritance； reflective practice, life education