Thesis advisor: Dr. Lauri Johnson / This qualitative case study examined the perceptions of novice teachers and central office leaders in one Massachusetts school district about the job satisfaction of novice teachers. Data was gathered from interviews with school and district leaders and novice teachers as well as through the analysis of district documents in order to identify central office practices that contributed to novice teachers’ job satisfaction. The findings indicated a strong connection to the district’s mentoring practices and novice teachers’ job satisfaction. However, while central office leaders also cited the positive role of the induction program, novice teachers did not perceive it provided a high level of support. Recommendations are made for central office leaders to establish greater organizational clarity and to differentiate the induction program to better meet the varying needs of novice teachers. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Knowledge of surgical procedures, instruments, and supplies is essential to the perioperative nurse working in the operating room (OR). Nursing school curricula do not specifically educate surgical nurses; therefore, it is difficult to fill open OR positions with experienced perioperative nurses. The purpose of this doctoral project was to develop a perioperative educational program for RNs newly hired in the OR. The practice-focused question asked whether an evidence-based staff education program for the novice perioperative nurse would increase the nurse's knowledge of OR procedures and protocols for patient management. The novice-to-expert framework was used to explore how adult learners acquire knowledge. Five experts were asked to review the educational program for its content, readability, length, and learner objectives using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire consisting of 8 questions. Experts strongly agreed that the program content met learner objectives. The program was then presented to 4 novice nurses with a pretest/posttest consisting of 5 fill-in-the-blank questions. Pretest results showed 1 of 5 questions were answered correctly by all participants. Posttest results showed all questions were answered correctly by all participants. The educational program has the potential to create a positive social change through increased nurses' knowledge of OR procedures, which might promote improved surgical care and outcomes for patients.

Many novice teachers are leaving the teaching profession at alarming numbers creating teacher turnover rates that may be difficult for educational administrators to combat. Novice teachers have a variety of needs and if those needs are not met, these teachers may not return for another year in the classroom. Teacher induction programs are designed to help meet the needs of novice teachers, but they must be structured appropriately and must use trained personnel who will be able to provide support for the novice teachers. The purpose of this study is to determine to what degree school counselors could be used as an additional source of support to help meet the needs of novice teachers by providing preparation and support to assist their transition into the classroom in order to improve retention rates among novice teachers. The review of literature examined teacher induction programs and the professional, developmental, and social needs of novice teachers. It also examined the role of school counselors to assess the skills and training they have that may be used to support novice teachers. This study asked school counselors to indicate the type and amount of support they currently provide to novice teachers and to provide their perception on serving as a source of support for novice teachers. The results of this study indicate that school counselors have several skills that could be used to support novice teachers. However, because they lack skills in certain areas where novice teachers have need, school counselors should not be used as a sole source of support for novice teachers. The results of this study suggest that school counselors should be used in conjunction with other campus personnel to most effectively meet the needs of novice teachers.

Solving complex problems is integral to science. Despite the importance of this type of problem solving, little research has been done on how collaborative teams of expert scientists and teams of informed novices solve problems in environmental science and how experiences of this type affect the novices’ understandings of the nature of science (NOS) and the novices’ teaching. This study addresses these questions: (1) how do collaborative teams of scientists with distributed expertise and teams of informed novices with various levels of distributed expertise solve complex environmental science issues using web-based information and information technology (IT) analysis tools? and, (2) how does working in a collaborative scientific team improve informed novices’ understandings of the nature of authentic scientific inquiry and impact their classroom inquiry products? This study was conducted during Cohort II of the Information Technology in Science project within the Sustainable Coastal Margins scientific group. Over two summers, four environmental scientists from various disciplines led ten science teacher and graduate student participants in learning how each discipline approaches and solves environmental problems. Participants were also instructed about NOS by science educators and designed an inquiry project for use in their classroom. After performing a pilot study of the project, they revised it during the second summer and the entire experience culminated with diverse teams problematizing and solving environmental issues. Data were analyzed using statistical and qualitative techniques. Analysis included evaluation of participants’ responses to a NOS pre- and posttest, their inquiry projects, interviews, and final projects. Results indicate that scientists with distributed expertise approach solving environmental problems differently depending on their backgrounds, but that informed novice and expert teams used similar problem-solving processes and had similar difficulties. As a result of the project, I developed a model of distributed group problem solving for environmental science. Participants’ understandings of NOS improved and matured after instruction and experience working with scientists. The level of most instructional products was “guided inquiry.” The implications are that working with scientists along with direct NOS instruction is beneficial for teachers and science graduate students for their understanding of scientific problem solving, but that much more work needs to be done to achieve authentic inquiry in science classrooms at both secondary and post-secondary levels.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe the lived experience of novice counsellors. Specifically, this study sought to determine what common experiences aid development and/or detract from a counsellor’s self-identity. It identifies how a counsellor is shaped by their experience and training. As well, it establishes the significance of understanding the impact of personal experiences on a counsellor’s professional development and isolates the needs of the developing counsellor as expressed by the participants themselves. Together, the lived experiences of all participants shared four common themes: anchoring, uncertainty, knowledge seeking and self-awareness. These four themes frame the over-arching phenomenon that describes the collective experience of the novice counsellor - transition. The significant feature or essence of transition is accepting and acknowledging on-going learning and change. The conclusions of this study promote discourse on the training experience of counsellors in the hope of modifying counsellor training programs.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe the lived experience of novice counsellors. Specifically, this study sought to determine what common experiences aid development and/or detract from a counsellor’s self-identity. It identifies how a counsellor is shaped by their experience and training. As well, it establishes the significance of understanding the impact of personal experiences on a counsellor’s professional development and isolates the needs of the developing counsellor as expressed by the participants themselves. Together, the lived experiences of all participants shared four common themes: anchoring, uncertainty, knowledge seeking and self-awareness. These four themes frame the over-arching phenomenon that describes the collective experience of the novice counsellor - transition. The significant feature or essence of transition is accepting and acknowledging on-going learning and change. The conclusions of this study promote discourse on the training experience of counsellors in the hope of modifying counsellor training programs.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF MORGAN E. MOSER for the Doctor of Philosophy degree with a concentration in Curriculum and Instruction, presented June 26, 2012, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: UNDERSTANDING HOW NOVICE TEACHERS UTILIZE ONLINE COLLABORATION MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Joyce Killian This investigation focused on the different forms of online collaboration used by current novice teachers in rural districts in Illinois. Two main research questions guided this study: 1) How do novice teachers use online collaboration? and 2) How does online collaboration affect their teaching practice? This study consisted of four qualitative case studies. The case studies focused on participants who were current novice public K-12 teachers of mathematics employed in rural districts in Illinois. Three of the cases were elementary teachers, and one case was a secondary mathematics teacher. To triangulate the data, three types of data were collected from the teachers. Individual structured interviews, collection of artifacts, and an analysis of online collaboration were completed and analyzed. Analysis of the online collaboration created by one of the participants in the forms of blog entries and Twitter posts was also completed. The first research question indicated that novice teachers used online collaboration to gain ideas and curriculum material, to overcome lack of preparation and support, to enhance classroom environment, and to share ideas and resources. The results from the second research question indicated that online collaboration has impacted novice teachers' practice in several ways. It promoted teacher reflection and encouraged them to implement new teaching methods or strategies. It also encouraged them to adapt resources to meet their curriculum needs and allowed them to discover new teaching methods and strategies. Recommendations for follow-up studies include the use of focus groups rather than individual structured interviews, lengthening the time of the study to include a full school year, and a change in setting to avoid certain technical difficulties. Additionally, research should be completed on the long-term effects of online collaboration on novice teachers and whether they continue to use it as they gain more experience.

In an urban school district in North Texas, there was a problem retaining highly qualified novice teachers. This phenomenological study examined the experiences of novice teachers to understand why some teachers demonstrated the resiliency to succeed as professional educators and to suggest potential solutions to improve novice teacher retention. Guided by Henderson and Milstein's theory of resilience, 8 novice teachers with 2-5 years of teaching experience participated in semi structured interviews. Research questions elicited the experiences that empowered novice teacher resiliency, the perceived role of administrators and colleagues to cultivate and build capacity, and recommendations to promote resiliency. Data analyses included an inductive thematic coding process to separate the data and identify themes. According to study findings, novice teachers' support from instructional specialists and colleagues contributed to their resiliency and retention. Participants indicated that a university education alone did not prepare them for the realities of teaching in at-risk learning communities. The participants suggested differentiated professional development to address the challenges of teaching in at-risk schools. A Comprehensive Professional Development Plan was created to address the gap in novice teacher resiliency and retention and to improve instructional practices to meet the needs of novice teachers and to provide a stable and responsive learning community for students to achieve social, emotional, and academic success. This study has the potential to produce positive social change by building capacity, resiliency, and retention through a long-term comprehensive professional development plan for inducting novice teachers.

The objective of this research is to explore the extent to which current models of decision-making and entrepreneurial cognition are relevant to a sample of true novice entrepreneurs, those who are in the process of founding their first business venture. Novice entrepreneurs are recognised as being essential to sustaining the entrepreneurial churn in economies (Disney, Haskel & Heden, 2003) especially as the young firm population requires new entrants. The need arises because of the high rates of churning observed in populations of young firms that require a constant inflow of new ventures to renew the stock of businesses (Ganguly, 1985). Whilst some studies of the behaviour of entrepreneurs do focus on relatively young firms (e.g. Chandler, DeTienne, McKelvie, & Mumford, 2011) studies of true novice entrepreneurs are rare. The thesis seeks to address this gap in the literature. A sample of true novice entrepreneurs, that founded businesses in 2013 and 2014, is interviewed to explore their decision-making and cognition regarding a realistic new business case study. The approach replicates that used by other authors who have studied expert entrepreneurs (Sarasvathy, 2001; Sarasvathy, 2008; Chandler et al., 2011; Dew, Read, Sarasvathy & Wiltbank, 2009) using a think-aloud protocol to identify causation and effectuation styles. However, by using a mixed methods approach of concurrent and retrospective think-aloud aspects it was possible to identify novice decision-making and to capture the prior experiences that they referred to (Banks, Stanton & Harvey, 2014). The sample of 32 true novices was a randomised sub-set of 1128 business founders in the UK. The experimental protocol enabled a comparison with alternative expertise theories of feedback and linear thinking in decision-making (Winch & Maytorena, 2009). The key findings were contrary to the hypotheses; the true novices were both more effectual and more casual than expected; and furthermore were frequently using feedback loops in their decision-making. In addition, as the novice entrepreneurs reflected upon their experiences that informed their decisions, the literature predicts that novice entrepreneurs would have to adopt analytical approaches to decision making as they lack salient experiences to inform their decisions in the early years of trading. However, contrary to expectations, the novices used both analogical and heuristic sense-making approaches and were adept at switching between them (Jones & Casulli, 2014). The outcome of the experimental protocol offers insights into the extent to which the current literature captures the decision-making processes and entrepreneurial cognition of true novice entrepreneurs. The evidence is mixed, offering the opportunity for further refinement of existing theoretical constructs, and reinforcing the relevance of alternative theories of cognition and decision making for novice entrepreneurs, for government policies and the support networks and that provide resources to assist the creation and survival of new entrepreneurial ventures. In addition, for novice entrepreneurs, this research examined the relevance and influence of their prior experiences and emotions on their entrepreneurial decision-making. In founding their first business, the prediction for novices is that they would struggle to draw on appropriate experiences (Mathias, Williams & Smith, 2015). However, the results showed novices referencing a wide variety of experiences, with the majority of these based on personal events that they had directly experienced either in their current start-up or previous work activity. Emotions are believed to influence entrepreneurs’ abilities to cope with uncertainty in business decision making and to persist in their endeavours in the face of adverse experiences and entrepreneurs are predicted to be over optimistic (Koellinger, Minniti & Schade, 2007; Ucbasaran, Westhead, Wright & Flores, 2010). The research profiled the novices’ emotions using the internationally externally validated PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect) scale (Watson, Clark & Tellegan, 1988) and the findings showed the novices engaged consistently with their underlying trait emotions however, interestingly, they were not statistically more optimistic than the UK population (Thompson, 2007). The findings make a contribution to both the theoretical explanations and practical aspects of novice entrepreneurship and show the appropriateness of relating current research to widely used measures from other fields of study, particularly as the impact of emotions is currently influencing the future of entrepreneurship research (Cardon, Foo, Shepherd & Wiklund, 2012; Shepherd, 2015).

This thesis considers how to teach novices to debug computer programs. The investigation is specifically aimed at students in first year of computer science at university. The goal is to find an effective method of improving the debugging ability of novice subjects. Novices are less effective than experts. Although weaker across the board, novices display a critical lack of strategic skills in the debugging domain. Novices become lost and discouraged easily. Novices do not make good use of program structure, do not use test cases intelligently, and do not track their progress. Even a slight improvement in these aspects has the potential to significantly improve performance. Expert debugging behaviour was examined. This provided the basis for a model of debugging to be used in instructing novices. Teaching materials were developed to instruct and support students in following the model. The model and training were then tested in both laboratory and classroom situations. Results were mixed, with a generally positive trend. The model by itself was not overly effective. When the model was accompanied by training materials containing examples and scaffolding, students who were willing to spend time examining the training usually showed some improvement. In a few cases, the student's debugging style was dramatically improved. The improved performance seems to come partially from improved skill and partially from motivation. The model and materials show potential, and are likely to be more effective when used in an environment that allows interaction, rather than the current paper-based, non-interactive tutorial.