The Induction Process of Newly Hired Teachers into the Existing School Culture of Niles Community Schools

Abstract

THE INDUCTION PROCESS OF NEWLY HIRED TEACHERS INTO THE EXISTING SCHOOL CULTURE OF NILES COMMUNITY SCHOOLS by Zechariah M. Hoyt Chair: Shirley Freed ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH DissertationOF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH Dissertation Andrews University School of Education Title: THE INDUCTION PROCESS OF NEWLY HIRED TEACHERS INTO THE EXISTING SCHOOL CULTURE OF NILES COMMUNITY SCHOOLS Name of researcher: Zechariah M. Hoyt Name and degree of faculty chair: Shirley Freed, Ph.D. Date completed: April 2015 Problem Schools, like other organizations, provide capital resources and experiences that promote the professional development of their employees. Professional learning and skill development are essential for educators as they work to improve student achievement. However, conventional professional development often fails to provide a collaborative social construction of knowledge that supports educators in transforming their schools into a strong culture of shared learning. This is especially evident when induction programs do not provide collaborative environments for new teachers to work with each other and other experienced teachers. This study explored the induction of newly hired personnel within a district located in the southwest corner of Michigan. The purpose was to describe the existing school culture that newly hired teachers experienced and to understand the processes, structures and strategies used through the induction experience to create and nurture a collaboratively engaged learning community. Conceptual Frame Concepts from scholarship on social interdependence, cooperative learning, and collaborative professional development guide this study. Kurt Koffka argued in his theory of social interdependence that a dynamic quality in groups was the development of an interdependence that influenced roles, learning and action and created positive interaction, individual accountability, appropriate use of social skills, and group processing for learning. Practice and research on cooperative learning grew out of this work. Cooperative learning occurs when individuals work collectively to achieve group goals. While formal cooperative learning requires an instructor to make pre-instructional decisions, explain tasks and cooperative structure, monitor learning, and intervene to provide assistance, informal processes can also involve these characteristics of learning in a group. Critical Friend Groups (CFGs) were developed as a professional learning modality that builds on cooperative learning literature. These groups are developed around norms, routines, and shared vision with a foundation of learning through social means. CFGs are focused on regular and intentional use of protocols developing the behaviors of collaboration and reflection as well as a focus on teaching and learning managed by skilled facilitation.