Neophyte Teachers Research Articles

A closer look at neophyte teachers' instructional competence: A phenomenological study

A closer look at neophyte teachers' instructional competence: A phenomenological study

Dialogic health literacy curriculum development for Iranian pre-service teachers: a qualitative inquiry

ABSTRACT Schools have the potential to be key settings for promoting health literacy, provided teachers are health literate. To this end, it is critical that pre-service health literacy curricula can adequately prepare teachers to meet the health literacy needs of future generations. In this study, we bring into focus the elements of a health literacy curriculum design, using the Dialogue Education approach. In an iterative process, qualitative inquiry methods were applied to develop the components of a dialogic health literacy curriculum for pre-service teacher education in Iran. The research design included two focus groups interviews with pre-service teachers, 12 face-to-face interviews with an expert panel, and a qualitative survey with 228 practicing teachers in Tehran. Data were analysed using thematic analysis, wherein they were coded and categorised in predetermined themes according to Vella’s [2008. On teaching and learning: Putting the principles and practices of Dialogue Education into Action. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass] curriculum components. This paper focuses on the processes undertaken in the development of a dialogic health literacy curriculum. The curriculum is characterised by a focus on the educational needs of the learners, positioning teachers as health promotion agents and providing neophyte teachers with a range of pedagogic resources for developing key health concepts.

WHAT DO BEGINNING TEACHERS NEED FOR EFFECTIVE INDUCTION AND RETENTION IN THE TEACHING PROFESSION

This paper contains the results of a study on beginning teachers’ views regarding the successful induction to the teaching profession, retention in it and the role of mentoring in this process. The study was conducted in 2018 within "The Art of Mentoring the Transition from the University to the Educational Institutions" research project of Vratsa Branch of St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of VelikoTarnovo.The first 1-2 years of the beginning teacher’s career are considered to be the most difficult and critical periods of a teacher’s career. It is often described as a time of survival for any neophyte teacher. It takes much determination and perseverance from the new teacher to remain in the teaching profession, shape his/her professional identity and find their place in a community of practice. Those who are not helped to develop staying power, ultimately leave the profession and they constitute quite a high percentage. High attrition rates recognized as a global problem among the teaching community signal a worldwide need of adequate support for new teachers.Effective induction requires high-quality mentoring and a strong supportive school environment. Knowing and understanding the needs, expectations and attitudes of the beginning teacher is the best way to overcome the hardships of the induction period and to ensure his/her successful career start.

Respecting Students, Acquiring Humility,and Ignoring the Curriculum

There is much talk and theorizing these days about narrative techniques and prescriptive approaches to love in the classroom and education at large as though these were new and novel methodologies. This paper as a voice(s) inside a secondary school seeks to address this issue indirectly through the experience of a teacher who has been given a classroom full of problematic grade 11 students. These students, for all practical purposes, are no longer cared for by their respective school system and they, in turn, have also given up on that system as well. They are all segregated on the basis of their poor reading skills and lack of self- discipline into a classroom that no one wants to teach. The highly unwanted job is given to a neophyte teacher, the author of this paper too many years ago, who ultimately has little choice in the matter. This teacher is highly unsuccessful in the beginning because he develops an intense dislike for these students in order to cope with their outward and self-destructive tendencies. In turn , in order to cope with his inadequacy and anxiety in teaching these students successfully. he pictures himself being ridded of them even in his dreams. Only with his emergent respect, humility, a disregard for the required curriculum and a love for his students that is ultimately reciprocated by them do they all learn to work together in a harmonious manner. Through ancient history, the opera, provocative literature and a special fieldtrip the teacher discovers that he has more to learn from his students than they could ever learn from him.

Experiences of LNU Neophyte Teachers: Cues for a Viable Mentoring Program

The usefulness of teachers’ mentoring program cannot be underestimated. Some universities and colleges in the Philippines have been implementing this kind of program with different approaches, content, and scope. The extent of mentoring programs to improve teaching careers has been studied here and abroad. Results remain inconclusive. This case study with a phenomenological peg has explored the lived experiences of neophyte teachers through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Their experiences in the first years of teaching were characterized by uncertainties, anxieties, struggles, and difficulties emanating from their lack of expertise on various aspects related to teaching practice, lack of knowledge about the culture and context of the university in which they were teaching, and lack of knowledge about the learners. With these specific inadequacies identified and the novice teachers’ implicit desire to be mentored, cues for a viable neophyte teacher’s mentoring program are drawn in the context of a teacher-training university.

Identification – a process of self-knowing realised within narrative practices for teacher educators during times of transition

Identity transformation from teacher to teacher educator is problematic as an ‘expert become novice’. The need for professional development for neophyte teacher educators is accepted. The focus of such professional learning has been on the development of an academic identity and engaging in research; the transition in identity is assumed to follow. This study used an adapted form of Professional Life History which is shown to support their ‘identification’ with the new role. Analysis showed a process of identification within the context of the focused story-telling. The study demonstrates that specific narrative practices can be utilised to support neophyte teacher educators in developing their personal and professional identity as a teacher educator.

Teaching Approaches of Beginning Teachers for Jewish Studies in Israeli Mamlachti Schools: A Case Study of a Jewish Education Teachers’ Training Program for Outstanding Students

This article presents findings from a longitudinal qualitative study that examined teaching approaches of neophyte teachers in Israel during their 4-year exclusive teachers’ training program for teaching Jewish subjects and first two years of teaching. The program wanted to promote change in secular pupils’ attitudes toward Jewish subjects. We found a high incidence of teaching using positivistic approaches of knowledge transmission and the teachers adopted a particular teaching approach early into their training program that they continue to employ. Can teaching oriented in the transmission of central cultural value knowledge, with pupils as passive receptacles, create a meaningful encounter?

Understanding beginning teacher induction: A contextualized examination of best practice

The problems that teachers face early in their careers are a major factor in growing rates of attrition among neophyte teachers. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, high rates of attrition, coupled with and aging teacher population in many countries in the developed world, may cause a teacher shortage crisis in coming years. Beginning teacher induction is an imperative process in acculturating teachers to their new careers and helping them overcome the hardships of teaching and the accreditation process. While induction practices have become more common in recent years, there are still no mandated structures for inducting teachers into the profession throughout Australia. This article reviews a number of international induction programs, which have been successful in supporting beginning teachers and curbing attrition rates, to emphasize why many programs are inadequate at meeting the needs of beginning teachers. The review proposes a definition for induction to better understand common misconceptions and highlights best practice induction as a way to retain quality teachers in the profession and help ameliorate conditions for beginning teachers. Finally, recommendations are made, specifically in the Australian context, which could help to improve induction practices to better acculturate neophyte teachers to their profession.

Exploring the Experiences of a Small Group of Saskatchewan Neophyte Aboriginal Teachers

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of a small group of Aboriginal neophyte teachers in Saskatchewan, Canada. Part of a larger study, this research used a mixed method approach for data collection in which 18 Aboriginal beginning teachers completed a survey (with Likert-scale items and open-ended questions) and an additional two Aboriginal beginning teachers participated in individual interviews. This study is a focused attempt to highlight the voices of the Aboriginal beginning teachers. Findings suggested that many participants had difficulty obtaining employment and identified family and friends as their core supports. Most participants felt challenged by their workload and a lack of supports to address the diverse needs of their students. Most participants found teaching to be rewarding and enjoyed the autonomy of their own classrooms. Many of the issues raised by the participants can be addressed by placing a greater focus on an Aboriginal epistemology based on the concept of community. To promote Aboriginal teacher recruitment, employment, and retention rates, it is essential that neophyte teachers are provided with employment assistance, mentorship opportunities, and curricular and unit plan resources. Keywords: neophyte/beginning teachers; preservice teacher education, mixed-methodology

Aboriginal Post-Interns Views Of Their Rural Teaching-Practicum

In this article, two indigenous post-interns, who completed their 16-week extended-teaching practicum sessions in rural schools in one Western Canadian province, assess their school-based internship experiences. They summarize their perspectives in three areas: 1) the elements they perceived as positive during the internship, 2) the challenging aspects they encountered during the four-month period, and 3) advice or suggestions for enhancing future practicum programs that they offer to practicum stakeholders. These views of thet wo-post-interns are compared to the findings from earlier research that similarly examined previous post-interns evaluations of their rural extended-practicum experiences in that region. Similarities and differences between the two sets of findings are discussed and implications are drawn for enhancing rural-based teaching practicums for neophyte teachers.

Professional Development for Primary School Teachers in Madagascar : Around Teachers' Network

In Madagascar EFA Plan of 2007, primary school teacher pre-service training was abandoned; it was replaced by in-service training. In addition to the inservice training implemented twenty years ago called “Pedagogical days” (JP), the “Teachers’ Networks” were created to cater for the profession development of neophyte teachers who have been massively recruited by parents’ associations (FRAM), but not excluding experienced teachers. A study was conducted to analyze the teachers’ network program, and to shed light on the contributions of the teachers’ network as a collaborative learning device. Questionnaires, supplemented by interviews, were submitted to regional education officials and key actors involved directly in schools. Although “collaboration” is not really apparent in JP as there is neither voluntary work per se, nor symmetry criteria, “collaborative learning” can be observed in Teachers’ Networks and is appreciated by FRAM teachers. In fact, the findings reveal significant complementarities between JP and “Teachers’ Networks”.

The Nightmare of Teachingophobia for Neophyte Teachers

Teaching beside modern schools brings fear and anxiety to the teachers. The common definition of fear according to Oxford Dictionary is the bad feeling that you have when you are in danger or when a particular thing frightens you. During the life, one can experience a great variety of phobias as fear of strangers, fear of darkness and fear of very particular objects. For a teacher there exists another fear known as fear of teaching. This kind of fear has many reasons as doing lesson plans, or an assignment to an undesired level and beginning teaching without preparation, which are traumatic in their own situation. Fears are not always rational; some of them are xenophobic in nature. This is true that the neophyte teachers worry that they may not be adequately prepared to meet the needs of students but experienced teachers may also seize up in fear. Indeed teachingophobia does not appear from poor teaching or disability but it has other reasons. In this way, this article tries to focus on different fears and phobias in teaching and suggests possible resolutions in order to make teaching a creditable job.

Alternatively Certified Teachers in Urban Small Schools: Where Policy Reform Meets the Road

In this study we explore the experiences of new teachers in urban schools at the intersection of three major policy agendas—alternative certification, new teacher retention, and the small schools movement. We examine alternatively certified teachers’ perceptions of the rewards and challenges of teaching in small schools, the support neophyte teachers seek and receive in these unique educational settings, and the reality of small school implementation in a modern urban environment. The findings have implications for policy-makers, urban school reformers, teacher educators and professional developers, administrators and teachers working to create and implement effective policy for twenty-first century urban schools.

How young teachers experience their professional work in Chile

This paper presents results from a qualitative study of 15 neophyte teachers in Chile who were part of a survey of 242 teachers in two geographical regions of the country. They were studied on the basis of questionnaires, interviews, observations and focus groups, all of which served to examine their teaching contexts and working conditions, how they recalled beginning to teach and its problems, their views about their profession and their work at the time of the study. The findings show interesting variations to those themes identified in the literature such as building of professional identity, their socialisation into schools, the relative weights of initial teacher education and experience, and the lack of support as they begin to teach.

Mentoring as professional development in Mathematics education: a teaching practicum perspective

In a study conducted to investigate mentorship and its relevance to continuous professional development for teachers of mathematics, it was established that mentoring teachers is equivalent to continuous professional development. Four teachers were involved in a mentorship programme that included training in teaching practicum supervision and guidance for student teachers of mathematics and neophyte mathematics teachers' induction. The mentor teachers acknowledged that as they trained in mentorship and engaged in the supervision and guidance of student teachers they were in fact involved in continuous professional development that sharpened their instructional skills. Mentorship assisted mathematics teachers to reconceptualize and reflect on their instructional skills and critically evaluate their teaching strategies as they interacted with student teachers and neophyte teachers. This paper highlights the mentor teachers' reflections of what they encountered in training to become mentor teachers and how t...

Mentoring and the emotions

Drawing on data from nine secondary school mentor teachers, the authors explore the emotional aspects of mentoring. Embracing a view of ‘cool’ professionalism, the mentors hid from their interns the intensity and complexity of their work as mentors. The authors argue that to maximize the value of mentoring neophyte teachers should be given a glimpse into its difficulty as part of engaging in rich conversations about teaching and learning.

Webfolio: An online learning community to help link university studies and classroom practice in preservice teacher education

<span>The Webfolio project was developed at James Cook University to extend students' professional learning beyond what is taught in lectures or gleaned through the practicum. Through web based case studies, early childhood and primary preservice teachers explored topics of professional significance to their growth as teachers. Each case study included a range of media, such as: work samples; audiotaped conversations; links to websites; telephone and in person professional opinions from practising teachers, principals, social workers and welfare agents; and online discussion with other participants, including students, teachers and university lecturers.</span><p>Case studies were based on authentic classroom situations; ones which student teachers may never encounter during their practicums, therefore requiring them to immerse themselves in the professional world of teaching into which they were moving. There were no single, correct solutions; rather learners were encouraged to reflect, imagine and develop multiple and often non-traditional solutions. This exploration was supported within a learning community, where participants were positioned as co-learners, scaffolding each other's learning while building links to the professional world. These links may assist in bridging the gap that some neophyte teachers feel when beginning their professional teaching careers.</p>

'Being a Teacher' : Developing Teacher Identity and Enhancing Practice Through Metacognitive and Reflective Learning Processes.

The discourse of reflection is now firmly embedded in a range of teacher education programs in Australia and overseas. Reflective frameworks have been used by teacher educators to offset the perennial emphasis on technically prescriptive interpretations of ‘being a teacher’. Whilst these undoubtedly contribute to the personal ‘meaning making’ of neophyte teachers, particularly in relation to practical classroom experiences, there remains significant scope to integrate a more concerted reflective approach throughout other elements of the teacher education endeavour. When the language of reflection is applied only in a cursory or superficial way in the teacher education context the opportunity to acknowledge, nurture and challenge the developing identity of the teacher is limited. The critically important question of ‘Who am I?’ is subsumed by an emphasis on ‘What do I have to do?’ In establishing an identity as a teaching professional it is critical that teacher education students come to understand their identity as a lifelong learner and consequently, their own values, attitudes and beliefs as learners. This paper provides an exemplar of one teacher education initiative that attempts to integrate both the skills and identity agendas through a metacognitive and reflective practice approach.

Online support for action research in a teacher education internship in rural Australia

The two themes of this paper are action research and online learning support in teacher internships in rural Australia. A model for the interaction of professional practise, the workplace and the university (Lee, Green and Brennan, 2000] came to inform the conceptualisation of a new final year teacher education unit which uses action research (Kemmis and McTaggart, 1988) as a learning process for interns (cf Beisser, 2000; Grundy, 1995]. This year long unit requires support in the first semester as internal students explore action research and identify potential areas for their improvement. In second semester interns (placed in 10 week internships almost exclusively in rural schools) are supported as they undertake action research to improve their practise. The unit has been piloted three times with small groups prior to full implementation in 2001. A move to online communication as the University's key support mechanism for interns at distant workplaces, and as an on campus learning strategy, was instituted in 2001. This report this paper reports upon: conceptual developments following pilots of a pre service unit in which action research during students internship is the culminating feature; online learning support for one student groups action research projects while on their internship; and early results from the action research project on online learning of neophyte teachers as internal students prior to their experience as interns.
 Our move into online work, on campus and off campus in rural areas, has proved to be of particular benefit to most students. The early data vindicates this move in that (a) the students appreciated being forced to read and (b) bulletin boards can provide support for complex projects while off campus.

The experiences of neophyte teachers: a critical constructivist assessment

In this paper the experiences of nine neophyte teachers are examined. Using a critical constructivist approach to analyze the data reveals six conceptual and temporal stages through which these beginning teachers pass during their initial experiences as practitioners. These stages are described as: (i) “archetype,” a pre-conscious and instinctual expression of human nature that is recurrent; (ii) approaching the gates; (iii) clearing the gates; (iv) the gloss wears off; (v) disillusionment and blaming; and, (vi) alternative routes across the Rubicon. Although drawn from a Canadian context, these findings may be transferable to other countries and will be of interest to teacher educators, school administrators, and beginning teachers themselves.