This mixed method study employs a phenomenological methodology to explore the experiences of novice secondary Texas English/Language Arts (E/LA) teachers' who integrated media literacy curriculum within their content area during the 2010-2011 school year. Data relating to the phenomenon was collected through Likert-type survey items and an in-depth three-interview protocol. The key findings in this study highlight the complex relationships that affect novice secondary Texas E/LA teachers' development of curriculum and pedagogy in the context of media literacy education. Participants' backgrounds were found to influence their beliefs and attitudes related to media literacy, which in turn, influenced the way they integrated media literacy curricula. Despite a commonly held belief in the value of media literacy education and intent to integrate media literacy in the E/LA curriculum, participants' confidence in their ability to teach students media literacy skills declined over time. Data suggest that this decrease is attributable to environmental factors such as access to technology resources and the culture and climate of the schools in which the participants teach. The study also finds that participants were insufficiently prepared to teach media literacy in the E/LA classroom and that both participants' teacher preparation program and school districts bear the burden for this deficiency. The findings of this study have specific implications for current educational practice. Schools of education and school districts are appropriately positioned to provide needed, but currently deficient, support to novice E/LA teachers with regard to media literacy integration in the content area. Such support could consist of formal coursework and/or mediated discussion in professional learning communities regarding: media literacy in the standards; technology skills and integration; pedagogical content knowledge related to media literacy education; sources for media literacy self-study and independent professional development; and teaching media literacy skills in technologically under-resourced or hostile environments.

This study aimed to investigate adaptation challenges of novice teachers in induction period, to analyze the variables influencing their adaptation, and to assess pre-service and in-service training in terms of preparing them for induction into teaching. Through a questionnaire, the data were collected from 465 novice teachers teaching in randomly selected 8 provinces of Turkey. The general results revealed that novice teachers had job-related concerns a little more often than the social concerns. The four most frequent adaptation challenges appeared as (1) workload, (2) social status and identity, (3) supervisor, and (4) classroom management challenges. Novice Teachers&rsquo / adaptation challenges differed in relation to age, subject area, university, faculty, practice teaching, existence of a mentor teacher in pre-service years, school type, grade level, amount of in-service training, and love of teaching profession. More than half of the participants perceived their pre-service and in-service training insufficient.

<p>Although there are several achievements made by the Namibian government after independence, there are still many constraints and challenges facing the education system, particularly with regard to novice teachers&rsquo / support and professional development. Most novice teachers are coming into the teaching profession and receive little or no assistance. Nevertheless, novice teachers are expected to perform the full teaching responsibilities despite their inexperience. Novice teachers are expected to formulate their own coping strategies and to grapple with the challenges they encounter during their first year of teaching on their own. This study aims at investigating the coping mechanisms used by novice teachers to achieve their teaching goals during their first year of teaching. The study recommends that the teacher training institutions, the Ministry of Education and schools have an important role to play in facilitating the use of effective coping mechanisms and in assisting novice teachers in alleviating these challenges. Teacher training should ensure that a balance is maintained between theory and practice. In addition the Ministry needs to provide favourable working conditions and put up support systems for novice teachers. Schools should also provide orientation to all novice teachers and most especially render support to all novice teachers until they are fully integrated into the school and teaching culture.</p>

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES FROM THE EXPERIENCES OF VETERAN ART EDUCATORS by JOHN PAUL WOOD JR. Under the Direction of Dr. Melody Milbrandt ABSTRACT This educational case study on classroom management was conducted through questionnaire format by way of email and mail correspondence with art teachers working in a south metro Atlanta area school system in February of 2008. It was conducted to gain data on classroom management techniques and strategies from veteran art educators. The data I analyzed provided commonalities in methods, strengths and weaknesses, and techniques used that could potentially assist novice art teachers in areas of managing student behavior, materials and supplies in an art classroom. The findings of this study reveal although art educators of different grade levels teach different art lessons, they share similar approaches to behavior management and have overcome similar problems as novice teachers. INDEX WORDS: Art Teacher, Classroom Management, Behavior Management, Advice For Novice Teachers

Magister Educationis - MEd / Although there are several achievements made by the Namibian government after independence, there are still many constraints and challenges facing the education system, particularly with regard to novice teachers' support and professional development. Most novice teachers are coming into the teaching profession and receive little or no assistance. Nevertheless, novice teachers are expected to perform the full teaching responsibilities despite their inexperience. Novice teachers are expected to formulate their own coping strategies and to grapple with the challenges they encounter during their first year of teaching on their own. This study aims at investigating the coping mechanisms used by novice teachers to achieve their teaching goals during their first year of teaching. The study recommends that the teacher training institutions, the Ministry of Education and schools have an important role to play in facilitating the use of effective coping mechanisms and in assisting novice teachers in alleviating these challenges. Teacher training should ensure that a balance is maintained between theory and practice. In addition the Ministry needs to provide favourable working conditions and put up support systems for novice teachers. Schools should also provide orientation to all novice teachers and most especially render support to all novice teachers until they are fully integrated into the school and teaching culture. / South Africa

The purpose of this study was to identify existing relationships between the perceptions of novice teachers regarding their teacher preparation programs, the support given to teachers from their schools, and the purpose of school. The study took place in Northeast Tennessee. Seventeen teachers from three different school systems participated in individual qualitative interviews, which lasted about one hour each. The finding corroborated the theory analyzed for this study and revealed areas for improvement in all levels of the education system. Teachers suggested meaningful changes to teacher preparation programs, including changes to general prerequisites and reorganizing education programs around meaningful field experience connected with adequate theory. Teachers suggested school districts to refine some programs they already have in place and improve their support. When prompted about the purpose of school, most teachers found a lack of connection between the expectations of school from state level and the purpose of school. The suggestions given by teachers matched the suggestions given by research regarding what needs to change to achieve the purpose of school.

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[Truncated abstract] It is essential to attract, recruit and retain quality teachers in rural and remote schools for provision of quality education to rural and remote students. A robust body of research confirms that teacher quality contributes to quality of education (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Hay McBer, 2000; Kaplan & Owings, 2002; OECD, 2002; Ramsay, 2000). Staffing histories of rural and remote schools identify persistent difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers, but previous research has failed to address the experiences and perspectives of rural and remote teachers from the earliest phases of appointment, tracking their experiences over time. In times and places of persistent teacher shortages, teacher quality of worklife issues are paramount. Factors impacting on teacher quality of worklife may impact on teacher retention, staffing levels and ultimately the quality of education for children. For these reasons, this study aimed to develop substantive theory about the experiences of teachers commencing appointments in rural and remote schools by investigating the perspectives of novice, interstate and overseas-qualified teachers. The study sought to develop understandings of rural and remote teachers quality of worklife. In order to achieve this aime, the experiences of 29 teachers were examined, in four categories of teachers likely to be appointed to rural and remote locations: young novices; mature-aged novices; interstate; and overseas-qualified teachers in a qualitative collective case study. ... Awareness of the variety of factors in multiple environments, and the complex interplay between them, helps to account for the diversity of perspectives and quality of worklife outcomes for rural and remote teachers. Two theories were generated from ten propositions. The first theory, Quality of Worklife for Rural and Remote Teachers: Person-Environment Fit to Multiple Environments, identified protective and risk factors associated with workrole, workplace, organisation, geographic and socio-cultural community environments. The theory recognises spillover between work and non-work life experiences, impacting on quality of teacher worklife; however, factors directly associated with worklife impacted most significantly on quality of worklife. The second theory, Processes of Adaptation to Multiple Rural and Remote Environments, identified processes (teacher expectations, evaluations of environments, responses to environments) and coping strategies (direct-action, palliative and avoidant) as leading to one of four outcomes: integration; resilient integration; disequilibrium; and withdrawal. The case study findings offer original understandings of experiences of teachers newly appointed to rural and remote schools, through the development of theory about multiple environments teachers encounter and processes of adaptation associated with their relocation to rural and remote areas. The findings have implications for theory, policy and practice, and contribute new dimensions to the general quality of worklife literature.

Le développement professionnel des enseignants-débutants est étudié au travers des souvenirs de leurs premières expériences professionnelles et de la dynamique des relations qui s’établit entre ces souvenirs et les croyances d’auto-efficacité. Ces croyances sont appréhendées par une mesure du sentiment d’efficacité personnelle, plus précisément, une échelle a été construite puis validée dans le domaine de l’enseignement.Deux objectifs sont poursuivis. Le premier cherche à appréhender les caractéristiques des souvenirs des premières expériences professionnelles d’enseignants-stagiaires au début de leur formation initiale. Il s’agit de recueillir et d’étudier les souvenirs d’expériences professionnelles vécues durant les premiers stages et de percevoir si une relation s’établit entre ces souvenirs et le sentiment d’auto-efficacité sur le domaine professionnel. Le second objectif est d'examiner plus avant les relations entre le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle et les caractéristiques qualitatives et quantitatives des premiers souvenirs professionnels en tentant d'en saisir la dynamique.L’analyse des données recueillies au cours de cinq études fait ressortir certains invariants caractéristiques des souvenirs relevés. Ces derniers sont précis, positifs et concernent essentiellement des expériences liées à la mise en œuvre des séances et à la gestion des relations. De plus, les souvenirs participeraient à la construction des croyances d’efficacité et celles-ci, en retour influeraient sur la mise en mémoire des expériences professionnelles. Ces mécanismes sociocognitifs sous-jacents semblent concourir au développement professionnel, et notamment à l’identité professionnelle, des enseignants-débutants. / The professional development of novice teachers is studied through the memories of their first professional experiences and dynamics of relations established between these memories and self-efficacy beliefs. These beliefs are grasped by measuring self-efficacy, more precisely, a scale was constructed and validated in the field of education.Two goals are pursued. The first one seeks to reveal the characteristics of the memories of the first professional experiences of student teachers at the beginning of their initial training. This is to collect and study the memories of professional experiences during the early stages and perceive whether a relationship is established between these memories and feelings of self-efficacy on the professional field. The second objective is to explore further the relationship between the self-efficacy and the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the first professional memories by trying to understand the dynamics.The analysis of the data collected during five studies highlighted some invariant features concerning memories. These are accurate, positive and mainly concern experiences related to the implementation of teaching sessions and relationship management. Moreover, the memories would participate in the construction of efficacy beliefs and these in return would affect the storing of professional experience. These sociocognitive underlying mechanisms seem to contribute to the professional development, particularly in the professional identity of novice teachers.

Education researchers have documented that first-year teachers are often less effective at reading instruction than their more experienced peers. Accordingly, this qualitative, comparative case study was designed to assess the instructional skills and strategies utilized by first-year and experienced teachers using Danielson's Framework for Teaching as the conceptual framework. The research questions were used to examine two groups of teachers using the framework and the Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project's defined levels of performance for effective reading instruction. The goal was to identify the instructional differences between the two groups of teachers. Purposeful sampling was used to select 3 first-year and 3 experienced teachers at the 4th or 5th grade levels from 3 different schools across 3 districts in a midwestern state. Data from lesson plans, observations, and interviews were analyzed using an open coding process, followed by axial coding using the Danielson framework to determine the themes of the study. The results indicated that the novice teachers had not developed automaticity in any of the domains of the Danielson Framework. The most challenging domain for novice teachers was instruction, especially communicating with students and using assessment during instruction to meet students' needs. A curriculum plan project consisting of a reading methods course and clinical component was constructed for a local college using the identified underdeveloped skills of novice teachers as actionable data that shaped the development of the plan. Positive social change might be realized as the goal of the plan is to improve teacher quality upon program completion, develop automaticity in reading instruction, and increase K-12 literacy achievement.