Background/context: Professional development is an important element of professional practice and teachers are expected to engage in activities that not only improve practice but also have a positive impact on pupil learning. Physical educators worldwide have acknowledged the need to improve the continuing education of teachers and have called…

This preliminary study reviews the journals of two teachers working side-by-side, a supervising teacher/mentor and a student teacher. The student teacher, a certification student, had a business degree, had worked in the business world for three years, and wanted to become an elementary classroom teacher. The supervising teacher, an experienced…

Focusing on eight instances of experienced and beginning teachers' work together in junior and senior high schools in a large urban district, this study explores the work of experienced teachers with beginning teachers, experienced teachers' perceptions of their role, and subsequent enactments. Mentors pass on to beginning teachers, through their…

This paper presents two propositions: (1) that extensive knowledge of subject matter is a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective teaching; and (2) that teacher education is a legitimate professional preparation which should be improved rather than circumvented. Six rationales for the validity of the above propositions, based on…

This is an examination of beginning teachers' acquisition of the structures of classroom discourse. Teachers were compared at the beginning and at the end of their first teaching year using a discourse analysis system. Thirty-three hours of audiotapes from 11 teachers were transcribed an coded. Teacher initiations during informing, eliciting, and…

To test Fuller's self-task-impact theory of teacher concerns, the factor structure of the Teacher Concerns Checklist was replicated with student, beginning and experienced teachers. The levels of concern across the experience categories were compared. Two factors emerged for each concern: (1) self concerns for student and pupil perceptions; (2)…

This is the first part of a report of a large-scale national study of the induction of beginning teachers in Australia. The present research program was undertaken in the belief that this growing interest would be well-served by a better understanding of the nature of a person's transition from student in a teachers' college or university to…

Indicates the differences between preteachers' and experienced teachers' cognitive schemes for classroom management. Experienced teachers reported using more pro and antisocial strategies than did prospective teachers. Both relied on antisocial techniques for active misbehaviors and prosocial for passive. (JK)

This case study examines the growth of Chris, a novice string teacher who, after two years of near-failing evaluations, successfully received tenure following his third year of teaching. Observations and interviews with Chris and his supervisors and mentors provided varied perspectives on his progress. Improvement came during the third year, when…

A music teacher talks about the hard lessons he learned in his first year of teaching in a small, rural, elementary and secondary school. Student discipline problems, poor class attendance, exhaustion, and problems with parents reduced his initial idealism and optimism. (RM)

Data on student achievement and background and teacher training, experience, and hiring date, gathered from 400 urban midwestern elementary students and teachers, confirmed that differences in the quality of teachers hired during different time periods (the "vintage" effect) strongly affect the relationship between teaching experience…

The author argues that, in many ways, the student teaching experience may not adequately prepare novice music teachers for their first professional assignments. He suggests changes in student teacher placement procedures, advocates formal assistance for first-year teachers, and lists seven tips for beginning teachers. (SJL)

Guidelines, advice and suggestions to make student teaching a rich experience. (Editor)

This study surveyed 156 special education teachers in South Carolina after their first year of teaching. Teachers reported they received less assistance than needed in all areas, especially in learning special education policies, procedures, and paperwork; materials and resources; and curriculum and instruction. They reported receiving the most…

The author's doctoral dissertation started out as qualitative research--interviews with beginning women teachers exploring the transition from teacher education into the classroom. She explains why the material could be better conveyed in the form of the bildungsroman, a German term for a novel of formation or education. Chapter five of the…