Section archive - Beginning Teachers

The authors examine the rationale and description of intervention workshops, Pla'ot (Hebrew acronym for Developing Academic Learning and Self-Regulation). The authors specifically examine the effects of the intervention workshops on its participants. The participants were five instructors, who taught in the workshops, and 96 freshmen teacher candidates in various majors at an Israeli college of education. The findings indicated that After participating in Pla'ot, candidates reportedly improved their (a) academic study strategies, and (b) self-regulation, particularly time management and self-efficacy.

This literature review focuses on mentoring and induction programs as a solution to what is defined as the problem of early career teacher attrition and retention. The authors found multiple differences in both induction and mentoring programs around issues such as who offers them, the length of time for which they are offered, whether they are government mandated, whether mentors receive further education for the role, how mentors and mentees are matched and so on. The authors also found that principals were seen to have a pivotal role to play in the success of early career induction programs.

This article reports on 20 newly qualified secondary science teachers (NQSSTs) participating in a New Zealand study on teachers’ early professional learning. The focus of the study is how these new teachers were nurtured to become competent science teachers, confident of their ability to positively influence student learning.

This study aimed to understand how new teachers experienced and perceived mentored induction and understand what aspects facilitated or impeded their learning. The participants were eight new teachers selected from two high-poverty, low performing Pre-K through eighth-grade schools in a metropolitan Midwestern public school system. The results indicate that new teachers found coaching to be a source of support and a resource for learning, and the new teacher were returning the following year and stated that they looked forward to continued work with their coaches. This study highlights that though emotional support and direct advice is appreciated, new teachers valued instructionally oriented, collaborative educative coaching.