This explanatory sequential mixed methods study was designed to determine, from the perspective of beginning teachers, the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic affected their intentions to remain in teaching. There were two additional goals in conducting the study: (a) to determine the key practices, supports, or events that played a role in impacting teachers' intentions to remain in teaching during a crisis; and (b) to determine the key practices, supports, or events teachers believe the district or school could do that might further impact their intention to remain in teaching during a crisis. In Phase 1, a survey was administered to teachers who began employment in the studied district in academic years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. In Phase 2, a semi-structured focus group interview was conducted with volunteer participants who had taken the survey to develop a deeper understanding of the patterns observed from the survey responses. While this study was designed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teachers' intentions to remain in teaching, a statistically significant result was not identified. This study identified practices, supports, and events that impacted beginning teacher retention, focusing on what was effective, ineffective, and could have been added to increase effectiveness. Beginning teachers self-identified that mentorship within their subject and grade level, salary and benefit increases, and supportive cultures were helpful in retention. In contrast, strategies deemed ineffective included a lack of preparation for the challenges that they faced and impractical professional development. Beginning teachers explained that retention might have been increased if school leaders allowed greater opportunities for networking, as well as a greater focus on training teachers in technology and software systems for classroom use.

High attrition during the first few years of teaching is a long-standing dilemma. Research findings vary somewhat according to specific studies, but it is estimated that about 30% of new teachers do not teach beyond two years, and within the first five years of teaching 40-50% leave the profession.Traditionally, discussions of new teacher induction have not considered the role of the school principal as significant (Carver, 2003). However, Brock & Grady (2001) found that beginning teachers identified the school principal as the most significant person in the school, as well as a key source of support and guidance. A recent exploratory case study of the supportive behaviors of four principals resulted in a structural framework of recommended practices (Carver, 2002); however, the importance of those behaviors in the retention of first-year teachers has not been studied.This mixed methods research study examined the relationship between principal support behaviors and the likelihood of first-year teachers remaining in the teaching profession. Q sorts, detailed questionnaires, and follow-up interviews were conducted with first-year and fifth-year teachers.Findings indicated that principal support was important to some first-year teachers in making retention decisions; additionally, specific principal behaviors that have the most influence on the likelihood of first-year teachers remaining in the profession were identified. Analysis resulted in the development of a list of 10 principal support behaviors that are most likely to influence first-year teachers to remain in teaching. These findings could prove beneficial in stemming the attrition rate of new teachers.

The following thesis draws from my experiences during my first year teaching at an inner city public school, John Marshall High School, from September 2007 to June 2008. It details apprehensions, conflicts, adjustments and corrections, both in my instructional method and personal interaction with students. I seek to illustrate mistakes and insights any first-year teacher might experience, as well as synthesize my own impressions regarding my evolving teaching philosophy.

The literature shows that up to 50% of teachers will leave the profession within their first 5 years of teaching (Saka, Southerland, Kittleson, & Hutner, 2013). Although reasons for departure vary, Johnson and Kardos (2005) found schools with high-poverty and high-minority students display excessive rates of teacher turnover. Teacher induction programs were established to assist beginning teachers as they transition into their new professional career in an attempt to increase retention rates. This research aimed to explore beginning teachers from high need schools’ experiences with university-based PLC induction. A total of 23 teachers participated in the induction programs during the 2015 - 2016 academic year. This research provides findings from three different data sources: interview transcripts, surveys, and focus group transcripts. Data was collected to understand beginning teachers’ experience with induction, the types of support offered by the programs, their intentions to remain at their school, and their attitudes towards the method of program delivery. Findings indicate that the majority of the teachers had positive experiences with the two induction programs. Mostly, the teachers felt that induction provided emotional and personal support. According to the novice teachers, administrative support had the largest influence on their intentions to stay or leave their high need schools. As a result, the teachers provided mixed results as to induction’s impact on their decision to stay or leave their current school. Finally, the majority of teachers prefer in-person models to virtual models although there were advantages and disadvantages to both types of programs.

This thesis "Social skills of teachers and possibilities of their development, orientated on beginning teachers" looks into posibility of utilization of videotraining of interactions method (VTI) for development of social skills in teachers-beginners. Theoretical part focuses on analysis of current state in pre- and postgraduated education, it's oriented on their personality and social skills, mainly on communication skills. Practical part deals with presence of development of social skills in beginning teachers. Effect of VTI of the development is tested. This method is prepared for this goal. Collected data comes from observation of 14 teachers and this data are analyzed by programm Interact. The outcome is a fact that VTI method has significant influence on global development of teacher's social skills. VTI has positive influence mainly in following fields: paying the teacher's attention to students and paraphrase student's statement.

This thesis "Social skills of teachers and possibilities of their development, orientated on beginning teachers" looks into posibility of utilization of videotraining of interactions method (VTI) for development of social skills in teachers-beginners. Theoretical part focuses on analysis of current state in pre- and postgraduated education, its oriented on their personality and social skills, mainly on communication skills. Practical part deals with presence of development of social skills in beginning teachers. Effect of VTI of the development is tested. This method is prepared for this goal. Collected data comes from observation of 14 teachers and this data are analyzed by programm V.I.P. The outcome is a fact that VTI method has significant influence on global development of teacher's social skills. VTI has positive influence in field "activation of students" (mainly affirmative attachement and paraphrasing students" statements).

Thesis advisor: Elizabeth Twomey / New teachers arrive to our nation's schools with a range of educational preparation and professional experience. Schools endeavor to alleviate these differences, build professional capacity, and guarantee the efficacy of new teachers (thus more quickly improving educational quality for children) most frequently through induction programs. Researchers identify mentoring as the most common means of inducting new teachers. The school reform movement and related law have influenced mentoring frequency, goals, and practices, as have recent advances in understanding how adults learn. With the number of new teachers expected in both public and independent schools within the current decade, the intense pressure of reform mandates, and public expectations on teacher quality, the effectiveness of new teacher induction and mentoring programs is paramount. Likewise, as the nation increases in its overall diversity, how mentoring programs address the race and ethnicity of new teachers and mentors, particularly when the vast majority of veteran mentor teachers for the near future will be White, is also critical to program success. This study examined the effect of a newly implemented induction and mentoring program on a cohort of new teachers during their first year of service in an independent school. The school had a strategic initiative to diversify its faculty. Consequently, an essential element of the study was to investigate the experience of new teachers of color who were involved in cross-race mentor-new teacher relationships in contrast to the experience of their White counterparts involved in the same program for the same academic year. An overview of the study, a review of relevant literature, the study's design, results, and discussion of findings and their implications are presented. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Submitted by Eunice Novais (enovais@uepg.br) on 2017-09-22T14:54:07Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Paula Valeria M Jonsson.pdf: 2663124 bytes, checksum: 961d908a110fadbde5f451e0876693cc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-22T14:54:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Paula Valeria M Jonsson.pdf: 2663124 bytes, checksum: 961d908a110fadbde5f451e0876693cc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-07-31 / O presente estudo tem como objeto a prática pedagógica do professor iniciante nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental da Rede Municipal de Ensino de Ponta Grossa/PR. A discussão justifica-se devido ao debate sobre o início da docência ter se intensificado nos últimos anos, sendo vista como período importante no desenvolvimento profissional docente. Tem-se como problemática de pesquisa a questão: Como se efetiva a prática pedagógica do professor iniciante dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental na rede municipal de ensino de Ponta Grossa/PR? Os objetivos da pesquisa são: a) Analisar quais são os fatores que determinam a prática pedagógica do professor iniciante dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental; b) Identificar quais são as dificuldades que os professores iniciantes enfrentam em sua prática pedagógica no início da carreira; c) Identificar as estratégias teórico-metodológicas que os professores iniciantes utilizam para superar os problemas e dificuldades encontradas na prática pedagógica. Ao longo do processo de pesquisa, foram abordados os seguintes conceitos: professor iniciante e sua inserção profissional (MARCELO 1999; VAILLANT; MARCELO, 2009, 2012; HUBERMAN, 2013); prática pedagógica (GIMENO SACRISTÁN, 1999; VASQUEZ, 2011); clima organizacional e características da escola (BRUNET, 1992; NÓVOA, 1992); a formação inicial do professor iniciante e as relações com a prática pedagógica (BISSOLI DA SILVA, 2006; ROMANOWSKI, 2007; SAVIANI, 2012). Apresentam-se discussões sobre o início da docência que permeiam o Plano Nacional de Educação e as Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais para a Formação Inicial e Continuada dos Profissionais do Magistério da Educação Básica. Além disso, o Estágio Supervisionado é contemplado nas discussões (SILVA, 2011), assim como a possibilidade de pesquisa no processo de formação de professores (LÜDKE, 1993, 2001; GASPARIN, 2002; ANDRÉ, 2006) e também o conceito de habitus (BOURDIEU, 1983, 2009). A pesquisa foi desenvolvida numa perspectiva qualitativa, cujos dados foram obtidos com a aplicação de questionário e com a realização de Grupo de Discussão, a partir de Wivian e Pfaff (2010), Callejo (2001) e Gutiérrez (2001). A investigação foi realizada com 21 professoras da Rede Municipal de Ensino de Ponta Grossa/PR, lotadas em 18 escolas. Utilizou-se a Análise de Conteúdo (2011) para a análise e o tratamento dos dados. Os resultados evidenciaram que a prática das professoras iniciantes é determinada pelos saberes construídos na formação inicial e que as dificuldades encontradas em suas práticas estão relacionadas com as interações com os demais professores da escola e com o clima organizacional das instituições. As professoras iniciantes buscam pesquisar, por elas mesmas, os subsídios teórico-metodológicos para superar os óbices encontrados e, assim, efetivam sua prática pedagógica a partir dos pressupostos da formação inicial e por meio da interação com os pares. / This study aims to discuss the pedagogical practice of the beginnings teachers in the first years of the public elementary education in the city of Ponta Grossa, Paraná (BRA). The research is justified by the discussions about the beginning teachers increased sharply in the last years, seen as an important phase for the development of the teacher´s career. The problematic of the research is: How does the pedagogical practice of the beginning teacher in the first years of the public elementary education take place in the city of Ponta Grossa? The research objects were: a) to reveal the factors that determine the practice; b) identify what are the difficulties of beginning teachers finding in their pedagogical practice in first years of teaching; c) identify the theoretical and methodological strategies that beginner teachers use to overcome the problems and difficulties perceived in pedagogical practice. Throughout the research process were discussed the following concepts: beginning teacher and professional insertion (MARCELO 1999; VAILLANT; MARCELO, 2009, 2012; HUBERMAN, 2013); pedagogical practice (GIMENO SACRISTÁN, 1999; VASQUEZ, 2011); organizational atmosphere and school characteristics (BRUNET, 1992; NÓVOA, 1992); the beginning teacher’s knowledge and the relations with the pedagogical practice (BISSOLI DA SILVA, 2006; ROMANOWSKI, 2007; SAVIANI, 2012). Discussions about the beginning of teaching that permeate the Brazilian National Education Program and the Brazilian National Curricular Guidelines for the Initial and Continuous Formation for Elementary Education Teachers are presented. Also compose the discussions of this work: the supervised internship (SILVA, 2011); the possibility of research in teachers training process (LÜDKE, 1993, 2001; ANDRÉ, 2006; GASPARIN, 2002) and the concept of habitus (BOURDIEU, 1983, 2009). Qualitative research was used to investigate the data, which were obtained by the questionnaire and the Discussion Group, from Wivian and Pfaff (2010), Callejo (2001) and Gutiérrez (2001). The research was carried out with 21 public school teachers of Ponta Grossa, Paraná, located in 18 schools. The Content Analysis (2011) was used for the analysis and treatment of the data. The results showed that the practice of the beginning teachers is determined by the knowledge built in the initial formation, and that the difficulties perceived in their practices are related to the interactions with the other teachers of the school and the organizational atmosphere. The beginning teachers seek by themselves to research the theoretical and methodological subsidies to overcome the obstacles perceived, and so they prosecute their pedagogical practice since the presuppositions of the initial formation and by interacting with the coworkers.

Prior research on new teacher mentoring has focused on in-person mentoring to mediate rates of teacher attrition, yet few studies have explored applying digital communication technologies (DCTs) as tools for virtual mentoring of novice teachers, particularly for supporting novice rural teachers who may be at higher risk of attrition. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how the virtual mentoring of novice rural teachers through DCTs reflected Hudson's five-factor model of mentoring. The research questions focused on how novice rural teachers and their mentors described the virtual mentoring experience and how the pairs interacted during the mentoring process. This single case study included two embedded units of analysis comprised of two mentoring pairs that contained one experienced teacher and one novice rural teacher who interacted using DCTs. Data were collected from interviews, reflective journals, and an online discussion forum. Single-unit analysis included open and axial coding and category construction. Cross-unit analysis involved the constant comparative method to identify emerging themes and discrepancies. Key findings showed that all of Hudson's five factors of in-person mentoring were present in the virtual mentoring interactions. Virtual mentoring provided novice teachers with flexibility, responsive mentoring, and a professional learning community for the sharing of resources, receiving affective support, engaging in reflection, and developing pedagogical and system knowledge through modeling and feedback. The results of this study contribute to social change by providing insights for educators and administrators interested in using virtual mentoring as effective support for novice teachers in rural K-12 schools.

This study aimed to explore how a rural elementary school and community situated English language education in Central Turkey, and how the rural context shaped a beginning English language teacher&rsquo / s professional identity and teaching practices. In order to achieve this goal, a qualitative case study was conducted. The required data were obtained through three major methods / semi-structured interviews, a time and motion study, and an open-ended questionnaire. The interviews were all audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The time and motion study involved the recording of the English language teacher&rsquo / s actions at the school. In this regard, the teacher was observed both in and out of the class during a two-month period and his actions were noted down at 60-second intervals. In addition, an open-ended questionnaire was delivered to the students taking English as a compulsory subject in their curriculum. The data were organized in separate files regularly, and analyzed by coding, and interpreting the emerging themes. The results revealed four keys to being a successful teacher in the rural setting. These included appreciation of rural life, passion for rural teaching, aspiration for teaching profession, and being well-prepared for teaching. It was also concluded that the rural elementary school and its community had general appreciation for quality English language education / however, they did not find teaching practices sufficient for effective language learning. Thus, English was not on the top of their list. Lastly, the results also shed light on the rural challenges that a beginning teacher might face.