This study explores the relationship between the length of student-teaching experiences and new teacher efficacy. Each year thousands of prospective new teachers endure the interview processes to be hired, complete induction programs, and begin their careers only to determine that the teaching profession is not what they assumed it would be. Local school districts spend thousands of dollars each year on orientation for these new teachers only to find them resigning within the first 5 years of service. Increasing new teacher efficacy is imperative to reducing new teacher attrition rates. The more student-teaching experiences an individual collects before entering the teaching profession may assist an individual in being prepared to contemplate the decision to enter the workforce. The purpose of this quantitative study is to determine the effects of the length of student-teaching experiences on new teacher efficacy. Teacher efficacy has been correlated with a variety of factors including student-teaching experiences; however, there is virtually no research comparing the length of the student-teaching experience and those teachers' self-efficacy. This study also seeks to determine if demographic features including gender, age, ethnicity, and years of professional experience affect the correlation. The participants in this study were teachers with 5 or fewer years of experience and working in Virginia public school systems throughout the state. Findings of the study did not reveal a significant relationship between the length of student-teaching experiences and new teacher efficacy, although several factors that were not controlled for could have affected the outcomes.

Diverse mentoring models have been implemented by educational organizations to address teacher retention, but debate continues over which mentoring model is most beneficial. Two school districts in Utah, USA, hereafter referred to as the Asher and Dane (pseudonyms) School Districts, provide distinct approaches to mentoring. Both the Asher and Dane School District have used veteran teachers with full-time teaching loads to mentor beginning teachers. The Dane School District, however, has recently implemented a unique and distinct mentoring model in addition to in-school mentors. In this model, full-time released teacher "coaches" with specialized mentoring responsibilities are assigned by the district to mentor several beginning elementary teachers in one grade band (K-3 or 4-6) throughout the district. This longitudinal research studied the Asher and Dane School Districts' mentoring models to develop a grounded theory to explain how these two distinct mentoring models were related to beginning teacher retention rates. A stratified, random sample was utilized, resulting in 23 participants selected for this study. Interview data were gathered from each participant during their first year of teaching, as well as follow-up survey and interview data in their third year. Beginning teacher attrition data were gathered from both the Asher and Dane School Districts. A constant comparative qualitative analysis method, using NVivo software, facilitated the development of the grounded theory. Findings describe and explain the sources and types of support that beginning teachers in these two distinct mentoring models found most beneficial in their induction, development and retention during their first three years. Beginning teachers reported that key mentoring characteristics included a mentor that had experience and knowledge, particularly in their same grade level, as well as a personal relationship with someone who was open to listening to them and who empowered others. Overall, collaborative teams and in-school mentors were a great source of support for beginning teachers, and teacher retention occurred most often when beginning teachers felt supported by their principals. Beginning teachers also experienced a decrease in stress and increase in both autonomy and confidence with time or years of teaching, experience, and support. Findings suggested that district coaches in the Dane School District lacked proximity, personal relationship, and knowledge of the grade being taught by those they mentored. As a result, they lacked the ability to help induct beginning teachers into their school culture and develop informal networks in the school and ensure retention.

The purpose of this study is to examine how documents used in new teacher induction and mentoring programs from five different school districts reflect and acknowledge the complexity of the programs of which they are a part. Extensive research has been conducted regarding various aspects of these two programs, often utilizing linear approaches to these programs. Research has called for analysis of the complexity of these programs. New teacher induction and mentoring documents were collected from each of the five districts, resulting in approximately 76 documents total. Documents were categorized into three main groups: mentor documents, mentee documents, and district documents. Each document was read and analyzed through two phases of data analysis. Phase I of analysis reports on the language contained in the documents related to seven emergent categories. Phase II of analysis connects the language of the documents of the seven emergent categories to the eight indicators of complexity as outlined by Davie and Sumara (2006). Two appendices contain the details of analysis, one appendix for each phase. Findings suggest that most documents contained elements reflecting and acknowledging the complexity of the two programs as well as elements of linear thinking. Lack of reflection of complexity is addressed. Suggestions for further research are given.

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My Diploma Thesis "Newly qualified teachers" is devoted to new teachers with less than 3 years of teaching experience after they graduated from accredited college and received a degree as a teacher. My focus is on the teachers in elementary schools. The goal of the theoretical part of my thesis is to collect technical information, opinions, ideas and knowledge from experts in the teaching profession in general, to characterize the new teacher's personality. In the few chapters I ponder possible fears, concerns, weaknesses and needs of the new teachers, and I also mention problematic field of the evaluation and self assessment of a new teacher. The content of the practical part of my thesis is exploratory inquiry using a method of survey. The goal of the questions and answers is to find out if the orientation of new teachers in elementary schools is functioning well with prepared orientation plan, and to identify and map out the problem areas that the new, inexperienced teachers feel in the beginning of their teaching carrier, and subsequently to detect and identify the new teachers' needs. I set preconditions for which I had the knowledge base from studying professional literature and from my many years of experience as an elementary school teacher. The topics of preconditions are: preparation for...

Attrition rate is high for beginning teachers in an urban school district in the Northeast United States. Without a proper support system in place, new teachers struggled transitioning from their preparation programs into the classroom. This study focused on recent graduates from a teacher preparation program at a large local university. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of preparedness of recent graduates from the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) accredited preparation program. The TEAC standards provided the conceptual framework which informed the interview guides. The research questions focused on the perceived readiness of new teachers, the skills or aptitudes identified as strengths or weaknesses due to perceived gaps in preparation, and how teachers adapted what they learned in the graduate program. Using a case study design, the insights of eight recent graduates, with fewer than two years of experience, and 2 supervising professors from the university who had supervised student teachers were captured. Purposeful sampling was used to select the participants. Emergent themes were identified through an open coding process, and the findings were developed and checked for trustworthiness through member checking and triangulation. The findings revealed five perceived new teacher weaknesses: parent involvement, math instruction, classroom technology, time management, and teacher stress management. The culminating project for this research used these results to inform the content of a professional development workshop for new teachers. This study has implications for positive social change by providing a structure for improving the preparedness of new teachers.

This project study addressed the problem of induction teacher attrition at a rural middle school in the Southeastern United States. The study consisted of a program evaluation of a new induction program to ascertain the program's effectiveness in reducing induction teacher attrition. The theoretical framework for this study was Social constructivism. The goals of the evaluation were to (a) examine evidence supporting the effectiveness of the program, (b) identify whether the program helped the school to meet its new-teacher retention goals, and (c) evaluate induction program processes for their possible revision and improvement at other rural middle schools. A qualitative summative program evaluation using an anonymous online survey was used to gather qualitative data from 19 induction contract teachers at the school. Text analysis was used to search and categorize responses and identify frequently used words and phrases. The results showed that the revised induction program did not influence attrition positively or negatively. However, participation in the induction program provided a positive social outlet for new teachers at the school. The evaluation report included recommendations for program improvement, including the hiring of additional staff to improve induction teacher attrition rates. Implementation of these recommendations may affect positive social change by improving rural induction programs and induction teacher retention.

The diploma thesis deals with the issue of beginning teachers of health education. It focuses on the most common problems they have to face during the first 5 years in the teaching profession. The main goal of the thesis will be to identify the most common problems that beginning teachers of health education have to deal with. Furthermore, their adaptation in the school environment and inclusion in the teaching staff. But also coping with the problems during the first years of the teaching profession. Another goal will be to find out how they solve problems and how they deal with them. Whether they have been assigned an introductory teacher and whether they work with him. The theoretical part of the work clarifies the issues associated with the performance of the teaching profession, characterizes the preparation of the future teacher for the performance of the profession, further clarifies the term beginning teacher and introducing teacher. Last but not least, it describes the implementation of a beginning teacher. The practical part will be based on research through qualitative research - semi-structured interviews with beginning teachers of health education, who teach for a maximum of 5 years and with introductory teachers, with significantly longer practice and experience. The interview is...

Mentoring is a common element of new teacher induction aimed at easing beginning teachers' entry into the profession and assisting beginning teacher growth and development. Previous research has shown that mentors are comfortable supporting beginning teachers but are reluctant to provide challenge-activities that will help beginning teachers improve their practice. For optimal growth to occur, mentors should balance support and challenge in their work with beginning teachers. This descriptive study employed multiple cases to examine the relationship of two junior high school mentors with their mentees. The mentors in this study work in a school district with an established and highly supportive mentoring program. Each mentor has received extensive preparation and ongoing support for their mentoring efforts. The purpose of this study was to examine how mentors balanced support and challenge in order to assist their mentees' growth. The relationships of two mentors, working with two beginning teachers each, were examined for elements of support and challenge as well as the ways in which the mentors and mentees positioned each other and were positioned. The mentors in this study strongly favored challenge over support in their interactions with their mentees. Although there were many similarities among the mentoring activities and conversations with the beginning teachers, each mentor had her own mentoring style and adapted their mentoring to meet the needs of the individual beginning teachers with whom she worked. One might expect challenge to be critical or negative, but the challenge found in this study was more nuanced and complex. The nurturing challenge found in this study was paired with support in such a way that the beginning teachers were not overwhelmed by the feedback they received. While the institutional expectations of mentors influenced how they positioned themselves in relation to the mentees, mentors also attempted to position mentees in a position of power within their own classrooms and with respect to their own development as beginning teachers. While at times both mentors and mentees resisted being in the position of dominance, for a majority of the interactions both parties accepted the institutional positions prescribed by the district program.