Mentoring and support of beginning teachers is a key element of reducing teacher attrition. Most schools have implemented an induction program with assigned mentors for inexperienced teachers. However, the problem of attrition begins before the induction year of teaching, given that many certified teachers never enter a classroom. This…

Recent emphasis on the development of creativity in Chinese students across various educational levels is highlighted in various Chinese societies, including Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Early childhood educators as important gatekeepers of fostering creative development in young children were invited to give their professional opinion on the…

A case study of a beginning teacher in an urban high school, conducted over five years including one preservice year and the first four years of teaching, describes how the teacher came to understand and amend her assessment practices through guided questioning of student work. The protocol poses questions to engage teachers in discussions about…

This study examines the reasons for using or not using interactive whiteboards (IWBs) by elementary school mathematics and science teachers in Taiwan. It also considers whether there were any significant differences in the reasons according to teaching subjects, teacher gender, and teaching experience. The survey was developed based on an overview…

A teacher shortage is a recognized problem in research on public schools. Schools across the United States must hire and retain highly qualified teachers, but the literature indicates teachers with fewer than 3 years of experience are often leaving teaching, creating a possible teacher shortage of 4.2 million teachers by the year of 2016.…

A comparison of courses that do or do not utilize a Course Management System (CMS) was undertaken from the standpoint of a new faculty member. Seven distinct advantages were found with CMS implementation including initial tutorial group set-ups, email communication, sharing of student generated products, sharing of instructor-generated products,…

New teachers are faced with many challenges during the first few years of teaching. They have to adjust to a new work environment, interact with parents, resolve a variety of conflicts, and design stimulating lessons for their students--often with few resources at hand. The large and varied workload that teachers carry during their first few years…

According to the National Education and the Arts Statement (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, 2007), all children and young people should have a high-quality arts education. To achieve this teachers require a high level of skill and training, and the belief that they are self-efficacious in the teaching of…

The purpose of this study was to develop a model that may be used to estimate the financial costs of teacher turnover in urban school districts. It is estimated that 50% of the beginning teachers leave the profession within the first five years on the job (Murname, Singer, Wilett, Kemple, and Olsen 1991; Colbert and Wolff 1992; Ingersoll 2003;…

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…

For music educators, the first three years of in-service teaching are often the toughest. They are the years when teachers are still learning their craft--or, perhaps more accurately, learning how best to apply that craft in real-life situations. Dealing with students, parents, administrators, even fellow teachers, is still a novel and sometimes…

Mentoring has been used in various fields as a professional development and acculturation tool (Kram, 1991) and is used extensively in higher education (Cunningham, 1999). However, despite numerous studies based on faculty mentoring, those conducted at Christian institutions of higher education have been limited. The study was framed by several…

The challenges novice teachers face as they adjust to inservice teaching are well documented. However, relatively little attention has been given to beginning teachers in rural schools who have had previous careers in other professions. We used qualitative methods to examine the professional experiences and perceptions of four career-changing…

If teaching is a complex act, it is additionally complex for first-year teachers', who enter with the same responsibilities as veteran teachers yet encounter specific difficulties as beginning teachers. This paper uses existing research on beginning English teachers major concerns to frame the exploration of concerns faced by four beginning…

In this paper, the authors review current practices in pre-service teacher education. They suggest that radical improvements are possible and that, if practiced, would help mediate many of the pressures young teachers face. To do so, the authors: 1) outline the experiences of young teachers to consider how teachers might thrive in a difficult…