Search results for: Transition

Continuity of learning and development for children transitioning from pre-compulsory to compulsory education remains challenging in many educational contexts. There is little evidence about the potential of coaching to build teacher capability as a strategy to enhance continuity for children. This article reports details of how a collective case study and the theory of practice architectures framed an investigation of coaching practices aimed at building teacher capability to address student continuity issues. The research endorses a situated (site ontological) approach to building teacher capability to enhance continuity in the early years. Findings identify how site-based conditions influenced (enabled and constrained) coaching practices and transitional continuity.

This study investigated the wellbeing of early career teachers in England and Australia to examine how best to provide early career support as a foundation for professional growth and longer-term retention. Survey responses from 67 newly qualified teachers in England and Australia, and five semi-structured interviews, provided rich insights into new teachers’ experiences, highlighting the overwhelming nature of the transition experience as new teachers struggled to adjust as they moved from the relative safety of the initial teacher education context to the reality of work in schools, in particular managing considerable workload which continued beyond the initial transition phase. Vital to successful transition were ongoing linkages between initial teacher education providers and employing schools, a supportive community of practice and bespoke mentoring. This has important policy implications, emphasising the need for personalised approaches to transition with high-quality mentoring during the first few years in the profession. An ‘educate – mentor – nurture’ model is proposed, to enable smoother and more supportive transitions, leading to professional growth and wellbeing.

This article discusses an empirical study of how online social networking can be utilised to support the initial student transition to university. An analysis of online activities showed some differences in the pattern of engagement between two contrasting departments, but information drawn from student questionnaires and focus groups, combined with tutor interviews, highlighted similar perceived benefits across both networks. By drawing on a wider cross-university questionnaire survey, eight factors which have been shown to be important in creating effective online social networking environments are discussed, including the need to maximize tutor involvement and provide quick responses to student queries.

The present study examined critical features of secondary special educator’s experiences with transition professional development to predict variables most likely to influence performance of transition planning and services. Results included the extent to which secondary special educators are prepared to perform transition practices, the relationship between preparation and the frequency of performance, and specific variables predictive of higher levels of implementation. The results confirm that training matters if special educators are to implement transition interventions and services.