Initial Years Of Teaching Research Articles

Challenges Faced by Novice English Language Teachers in Raparin Territory During Their Initial Years of Teaching

Challenges Faced by Novice English Language Teachers in Raparin Territory During Their Initial Years of Teaching

Small Moves: New Teachers’ Perceptions of Authoritative Discourse

Novice teachers experience language about literacy instruction from a variety of sources. This longitudinal case study uses Bakhtin’s notions of authoritative and internally persuasive discourse to consider how four novice teachers negotiated messages regarding literacy instruction from the conclusion of preservice education through their first 2 years of teaching. Although the challenges of the initial years of teaching have been studied, limited attention has been given to the ways in which novice teachers negotiate and take up language about literacy instruction within their school contexts. Interviews and email journals were used as data sources. Findings reveal that novice teachers perceived authoritative discourse from curricula, programs and assessments, and instructional expectations of administrators or senior colleagues. Participants accessed internally persuasive literacy discourses through questioning, supplementing, and changing literacy programs they perceived as required by authorities. Implications for teacher educators, researchers, and school personnel are discussed.

Malaysian English language novice teachers’ challenges and support during initial years of teaching

This study investigates the challenges encountered by Malaysian English language novice teachers throughout the initial years of their teaching. This study also explores the support received by these novice teachers at the beginning of their careers. The mixed-method research design was adopted for this study. A number of 80 novice teachers participated in the study. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey and an interview with five novice teachers. The findings indicated that the most frequent challenges faced by the novice English language teachers were (1) workload challenges, (2) instructional challenges, and (3) social status and identity challenges. The results also showed that the most frequent support received by the novice teachers was collegial support. Based on the findings, one of the most crucial issues to be addressed during the teacher training was equipping the novice teachers with the knowledge and skill in managing their multiple work and responsibilities in schools. Training novice teachers in using various instructional methods, particularly on the use of computer technology is also important. The novice teachers also need to be provided with more professional development courses that can develop their confidence in teaching, help them build a relationship with students and colleagues, and educate them on how to manage their problematic learners. A structured support system with good mentoring practices during the initial years of teaching is also crucial in assisting the novice teachers to adapt to the teaching environment and carry out assigned responsibilities.

"It Is Utterly Out of My Expectation"-A Case Inquiry of Teacher Identity of an EFL Teacher in a Chinese Shadow School Setting.

Though teacher identity is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in the literature on teacher education and teacher development, little information is available about the richness, fluidity and individuality of EFL teacher identities in various L2 settings. This preliminary case inquiry has echoed that comment by exploring qualitatively how language teacher identity features in the participant's categorization of herself as a professional during her school-to-work transition at a shadow school in hinterland China. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and reflection essays, the triangulated data were analyzed with thematic analysis in order to find categories of enacted identities and key factors that impacted Jane's teacher identity formation. The results indicate four identities existed: an attendant, a firefighter, a coolie and a tramp. The fundamental predicaments hovering over the green employer encompass an array of contextual factors, including (1) overwhelming anxieties for potential early student leavers; (2) overhuge workload and fluid working schedule; (3) endless non-teaching related commitments; (4) lack of career prospect and development ladder. The results of the study contribute to the understanding of the complex and dynamic nature of teacher identity influenced by sociocultural landscapes where language teachers are situated. The research suggests implications for teacher educators and stakeholders on how to transform a novice to a qualified EFL teacher within the ideology and discouraging discourse of a burgeoning privately-owned training market, and on how to mediate green teachers' agency and autonomy against the bottlenecks of their initial years of teaching.

Novice Teachers’ Challenges and Coping Strategies in Qatari Government Schools

This study examined the challenges novice teachers encountered in Qatari government schools and the coping strategies they adopt. A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 15 novice teachers during their initial years of teaching. The findings demonstrated that most participants faced several personal challenges and other challenges within and beyond the school. Findings also indicated that these teachers confronted these challenges using various coping strategies. The challenges facing novice teachers include teaching and classroom, government, and administrative, and professional challenges. Novice teachers' coping strategies included individual internal peace strategies, active communication, and changing environment. Finally, based on these findings, suggestions are provided to support novice teachers' long-term success in Qatari government schools or similar contexts.

Evolution of Teachers’ Technology Integration Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices: How Can We Support Beginning Teachers Use of Technology?

In this study, we examined a group of four teachers who completed extra educational technology coursework and field experiences during their teacher education programs to determine how their technology integration knowledge, self-efficacy beliefs, intentions, and practices evolved over time. We conducted interviews and evaluated data sources at three intervals: (1) after teacher education coursework was completed, (2) after student teaching was completed, and (3) after two initial years of teaching. Results showed that school resources and environment had a strong impact on beginning teachers' practices, regardless of strong internal enabling factors.

Heart of Learning: Pedagogical Practices Amongst Islamic Education Novice Teachers in the 21st Century

A number of issues and challenges have been faced by novice teachers such as the difficulties in translating their knowledge into action, managing the classroom, finding suitable teaching approaches and more. Thus, this study seeks to address and examining the understanding and pedagogical practices of novice teachers as they grapple with essential aspects of teaching. Moreover, it provides an insight into the actual application of their teaching and learning approaches which they adopt throughout a limited experience during their initial years of teaching. This study was conducted on ten Islamic education novice teachers in secondary schools from four different states in Malaysia. The data were collected by using semi-structured individual interviews. The results that emerge from these findings are teachers’ application of using student-centred learning and their acceptance in imposing 21st Century Education.

‘Cognitive aging’ in teachers: L2 teachers’ cognitive performance across various stages in their teaching career

ABSTRACTReconceptualization of teaching as a thoughtful process guided by teachers’ thinking has inspired a substantial body of research into various factors involved in shaping teachers’ cognitions. Experience has been cited as one of the factors structuring teachers’ cognitions. However, despite the multitude of studies comparing the cognitions underlying novice and experienced teachers’ performance, there is little evidence, if any, as to how teacher cognition might vary across various levels of teaching experience. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by comparing the pedagogical thought units of teachers at different stages of their teaching career. Twenty teachers were assigned to five groups of varied teaching experience (n = 4 per group). Teachers’ class performances were video recorded and stimulated recall technique was used to probe into their pedagogical reasoning. The analyses of the data revealed significant differences across the five groups both in the sums of frequencies of pedagogical thought units produced by the teachers and in a number of the dominant pedagogical thought categories. The results also point to the more noticeable role of experience in (re)structuring teachers’ cognitions in the initial years of teaching and declines in its influence at later stages of the teaching career.

Novice Non-Native English Teachers’ Reflections on Their Teacher Education Programmes and Their First Years of Teaching

<p><span>This study investigates novice non-native English teachers’ opinions about the effectiveness of their teacher education programme and the challenges during their initial years of teaching. The results of a survey administered to fifty-five novice teachers and follow-up interviews identify strengths and weaknesses in their teacher education programme and catalogue the difficulties they faced when they star-ted to teach. The study found significant differences between the content of novice teachers’ academic courses in their teacher education programme and the conditions they experienced in classrooms. The major challenges of their first years of teaching were related to lesson delivery, managing behaviour, unmotivated students, and students with learning disabilities. The article includes suggestions to prepare teachers for the actualities of working in schools.</span></p>

Identifying Strategies Adopted by Novice Lecturers in the Initial Years of Teaching

Novice lecturers generally face many challenges in their initial years of teaching especially in the three areas relating to their roles and responsibilities which are teaching, research, and community service. Some institutions of higher learning offer basic courses in teaching and learning to these new lecturers. However, these courses are not conducted prior to their entry into teaching as these courses are usually conducted at a certain period after they have started teaching. As a result, they have to perform the three main roles mentioned above without any proper training and guidance especially in conducting their core business which is teaching. Most of these novice lecturers have sufficient content knowledge but are lacking in pedagogical skills. As such, they resort to other strategies to equip themselves with the required skills in teaching, research and performing community service. The objective of this study therefore, is to examine the coping strategies adopted by novice lecturers to cope with the demands of their roles and responsibilities in their initial years of their teaching prior to attending formal training. A study was carried out on a group of novice lecturers who attended the Kursus Asas Pengajaran or Basic Teaching Course in 2012 organised by Institute of Leadership, Quality and Management (ILQAM) Universiti Teknologi MARA. The data was collected using questionnaire and were analysed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies, means and percentages. With adequate support especially at the initial years of teaching, these novice lecturers will be empowered to undertake their roles and responsibilities in line with innovating education for the future generation.

Preparing teachers for professional learning: is there a future for teacher education in new teacher induction?

Today the quality of teachers is held to be increasingly important yet there continue to be doubts about whether teacher education programs graduate teachers ready to meet the challenges of their initial years of teaching. In some jurisdictions, other agencies (Ministries of Education, school districts, and private providers) are supplementing the work of teacher education through the introduction of new teacher induction programs which have become favoured policy initiatives to enhance new teacher transition, retention and quality. Evidence suggests that induction and mentoring increase teacher retention and ensure more effective socialisation of new teachers into the school culture. In spite of their growing popularity, the degree to which induction programs complement teacher education and/or impact new teacher professional learning remains unclear. In this paper the authors report a secondary analysis of data from an evaluation of the New Teacher Induction Program in Ontario, Canada to consider the implications for the future of teacher education by asking: What are the challenges facing new teachers? In what ways does the induction program support new teacher professional learning? What are the major implications for the future of teacher education?

Early-career EBD Teacher Knowledge, Ratings of Competency Importance, and Observed Use of Instruction and Management Competencies

Abstract The empirical, conceptual, and theoretical knowledge of early-career EBD teachers was assessed two years after student teaching and compared to their ratings of the importance of specific instruction and classroom management competencies as well as to their application of those competencies. Twelve teachers, six elementary and six secondary, with master's degrees in special education were assessed and three explicit instruction lessons observed across a 4-month period. A significant positive correlation was found between teacher knowledge and teacher classroom use of individualized support strategies; no correlations were found between knowledge, teacher ratings, and teacher use of three other competency clusters. Thirteen competencies were applied universally and the overall quality of explicit instruction was satisfactory to excellent. Although very dissatisfied with education law and administrative issues, eleven intended to teach in special education for the foreseeable future; one planned to switch to general education after two more years. Implications for teacher education and future research are discussed. ********** Teacher knowledge, classroom instructional competence, and classroom management skills can significantly affect teacher effectiveness--from student behavior (Beyda, Zentall, & Ferko, 2002) and achievement (Darling-Hammond & Young, 2002) to teacher self-efficacy (Brophy et al., 1986; Kauffman & Wong, 1991) and longevity in the profession (Billingsley, 2004). Darling-Hammond (2003) reports that in some cases as many as two-thirds of new teachers plan to quit teaching at the end of their first year. The initial years of teaching appear to be a particularly vulnerable period for the attrition of special education teachers (Boyer & Gillespie, 2000; Cross & Billingsley, 1994; Schlichte, Yssel & Merbler, 2005), and teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) appear to be at an increased risk for early attrition (Helge & Marrs, 1984). Early attrition of special education teachers is postulated to be due to teacher factors such as inadequate behavior management skills (Cegelka & Alvarado, 2000; Mitchell & Arnold, 2004; Wehby, Symons, Canale, & Go, 1998), inaccurate use of validated instructional strategies and materials (Brown, Gable, Hendrickson, & Algozzine, 1991; Gable, Hendrickson, & Van Acker; 2001; Gresham, MacMillan, Bee-be-Frankenberger, & Bocian; 2000), and use of ineffective strategies (Scheuerman, Webber, Boutot, & Goodwin, 2003). Given the severe shortage of fully certified special education teachers (Sindelar, Daunic, & Rennells, 2004), teacher educators have increasing responsibility to ascertain not only whether or not their graduates are employed, but how they are faring. Assessment of how EBD teachers manage their roles and responsibilities can be approached in various ways--as noted by Blanton, Sindelar, and Correa (2006), different people use different measures of teacher quality depending on their purposes. Generally speaking, we wanted to examine (a) the relation between what early-career EBD teachers know about effective instruction and classroom management, (b) the instruction and management competencies they value most and least, and (c) the competencies they actually use during instruction. It is well-known that the research literature is replete with empirically-documented instructional approaches and behavior management strategies for working with difficult-to-teach students, yet a serious gap continues to exist between knowledge of validated teacher practices (e.g., clear behavioral expectations, choice options, consistent rewards and consequences, explicit instruction) and the use of those practices in EBD classrooms (Jack et al., 1996). Wehby et al. (1998), for example, examined in-depth the classroom behavior of teachers of students with EBD and noted an overall lack of systematic programming, teacher-student interactions that were rarely positive, few teacher praise statements, low rates of instructional interactions, and high reprimand rates. …

Assessing Teacher Education

Productive strategies for evaluating outcomes are becoming increasingly important for the improvement, and even the survival, of teacher education. This article describes a set of research and assessment strategies used to evaluate program outcomes in the Stanford Teacher Education Program during a period of program redesign over the past 5 years. These include perceptual data on what candidates feel they have learned in the program (through surveys and interviews) as well as independent measures of what they have learned (data from pretests and posttests, performance assessments, work samples, employers’ surveys, and observations of practice). The article discusses the possibilities and limits of different tools for evaluating teachers and teacher education and describes future plans for assessing beginning teachers’ performance in teacher education, their practices in the initial years of teaching, and their pupils’ learning.

Science Teacher Education: From a Fractured System to a Seamless Continuum

AbstractA discrepancy model is used to describe an ideal state of science teacher education, including undergraduate education, initial years of teaching, and lifelong professional development. Next, a description of the actual state of science teacher education provides a stark contrast with the ideal state. However, research reveals promising programs and practices that indicate ways to move from the actual to the ideal state. All phases of the discrepancy model—ideal, actual, and transition—are based upon findings in the literature. The types of policies and guidelines needed to reach the ideal state are delineated also. Although the recommendations will not “fix” science teacher education, they will—if widely implemented by districts and states—aleviate its most serious problems.

Certification Measures: Are They Predictive Of Secondary Agriculture Teacher Proficiency?

The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of teacher preparation program certification requirements to predict classroom teaching performance. The accessible sample consisted of 12 Agricultural Education graduates from the University of Missouri. Teaching performance was assessed by the teacher's supervising administrator using the Performance Based Teaching Evaluation instrument, and by the researcher through classroom observations using the Formative Assessment of Teaching instrument. The first research objective sought to describe the teacher certification requirements that were predictive of teaching performance during the initial years of teaching as assessed by the teachers' administrative supervisors. Agricultural education coursework GPA accounted for 40% of the variance associated with teaching performance, as assessed by public school administrators. The second research objective sought to describe the teacher certification requirements that were predictive of observed classroom teaching performance. Upon regressing the dependent variable, teaching performance, on the seven certification measures, no certification measure, or combination of certification measures, were found that could explain a significant proportion of the variance in teaching performance. Research objective three sought to describe school administrators' perceptions of necessary teaching characteristics and the relationship between cognitive abilities and teaching performance. Administrators, in face-to-face interviews, emphasized the importance of affective characteristics to teaching. Administrators perceived that higher academic abilities did not necessarily equate to successful teaching performance.

A State Program for the Initial Years of Teaching

The reasons for the widespread attention to programs designed to increase the effectiveness of new teachers include perceived weaknesses of preservice teacher education programs, lack of attention to distinctions between novice and experienced teachers, school and classroom assignments typically given to new teachers, absent or weak relationships between higher education and elementary and secondary schools, beliefs that teacher behavior contributes to declines in pupil outcomes, and others. Proposing solutions to these problems is seen as appropriate for state policymakers. A major policy-into-practice dilemma is how to use state-level initiatives to intervene effectively in a human activity as complex as teaching. This complexity and an understanding of selected issues faced by new teachers form the basis for a set of recommendations about how a state program for the initial years of teaching can be formulated. The recommendations focus on initiating new teachers into a profession, as opposed to socializing them into an occupation.