The authors describe how an emergent teacher overcame her first-year teaching challenges in reading aloud to preschoolers and explored and adopted reading support strategies to provide equitable and engaging reading experiences for all.

Early childhood educators play a significant role in attending to the whole child by nurturing, caring, educating, and molding the young minds in their care. To be effective educators, early childhood educators must be well-rounded with the knowledge to attend to the children with utmost care and consideration. Early childhood teachers must be…

The experiences and perceptions of novice educators' willingness to remain in teaching have been without clear research. The problem addressed by this study was the need to understand why novice educators remain in the field in order to support districts and legislators in updating policies and funding measures. The purpose of this qualitative…

Research suggests that beginner teachers face challenges when transitioning from pre-service to in-service teaching. Both international and local research found that transitioning from preservice to newly qualified teachers can be problematic. This study explores the learning experiences of beginner foundation phase Grade R teachers. The study…

This research reports an exploratory study of 22 pre-service teachers involved in the Religious Education courses offered by The University of Notre Dame Australia, as part of the university's accreditation to teach religious education. The study examined the influence of key factors on how confident these pre-service teachers perceived themselves…

Policymakers and researchers have dedicated increasing attention to the state of the kindergarten-through-grade 12 (K-12) teacher preparation programs (TPPs) amid concerns over potential teacher and staff shortages in many school districts and states. With many districts and states facing staffing challenges and declining levels of both interest…

Kindergarten Teachers' (KTs') work is different from that of school teachers' because they juggle the role of being caregivers for young children and tending to their physical, emotional and educational needs, with the task of being 'managers' or 'leaders' of their kindergarten units (Guo et al. in Teach Teach Educ 27(5):961-968, 2011a; Aizenberg…

Professional development is an important tool for supporting early childhood teachers in implementing developmentally appropriate practices and child-guided instruction in the classroom. This phenomenological study explored five U.S. novice early childhood education teachers' experiences with professional development. Specifically, we explored how…

Situated within the theoretical framework of reflective practice, this phenomenological study investigated how early childhood teachers reflected on the ways in which they were able or unable to engage in developmentally appropriate practices during the first four months of the 2020-2021 school year in the context of COVID-19-induced remote…

The purpose of this paper is to describe a state-wide process used to determine which Teaching Works High Leverage Practices (Ball, 2016) pre-service teachers could be expected to implement at a proficient level by the completion of their preparation program (Initial HLPs), followed by two sets of high leverage practices novice teachers could…

Connecticut is one of 29 states that require beginning teachers to complete an induction program to mitigate high turnover and lower efficacy among early-career teachers. Its two-year Teacher Education and Mentoring (TEAM) Program provides guidance to beginning teachers through several mechanisms, including five instructional modules and ongoing…

This study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-year new-teacher induction program, which encompassed a first-year mentoring component and four years of continuous professional development to support new teachers during their pre-tenure phase. Using a mixed methods case study approach, the research sought to determine the most…

This dissertation delves into the crucial realm of teacher-parent communication, recognizing its pivotal role in establishing a foundation of trust with families. This study employs a qualitative approach to emphasize the bidirectional and continuous nature of effective communication. It adopts a case study methodology, focusing on ten early…

Background: The Mental Starters Assessment Project (MSAP) seeks to address poor performance in Grade 3 mathematics. The programme focusses on eliminating inefficient counting methods and promoting strategic mathematical skills, including numerical sense, mental calculation and rapid recall skills. Additionally, MSAP supports teachers' professional…

This study explored the year-long development of 159 (N = 159) novice K-2 teachers' self-efficacy for literacy instruction, within a literacy-specific induction initiative with sixteen high-need, predominantly rural school districts. Findings reveal novice teachers' self-efficacy for literacy instruction grew significantly throughout the year.…