Presents partial results from an ongoing Japanese study of teachers' practical thinking styles designed to clarify their practical epistemology. Five major findings of practical thinking styles are discussed, and the implications for teacher education in Japan are considered. (GLR)

A study of occupational stress and personal-strain levels among new and experienced male and female college faculty found no differences in stress or strain between male and female faculty or between new and experienced faculty. Role overload and avoidant coping were significant predictors of strain, with hardiness and responsibility for…

To help beginning teachers succeed, principals should identify individual teachers' strengths and weaknesses during the interviewing/hiring stage, balance neophytes' workloads, limit their extracurricular activities, establish expectations, select veteran mentors, offer informal formative assessment, be specific about classroom observations, and…

Through teacher and colleague interviews, presents experiences of first-year teacher in a poor, urban elementary school and his attempts to enact a social reconstructionist curriculum. Describes student resistance to the teacher's practices and his ability to help students adjust to a new way of learning. (LBT)

Mentoring is proposed as an effective strategy for helping novice teachers develop professional knowledge. However, a recent analysis of mentor-novice conversations in the United States about teaching reveals that they may not be important to the development of teachers' reform-minded practice. While this might be the case involving student…

The purpose of this study was to determine the challenges that new business/marketing teachers face as well as the current support structures available to them and to determine experienced business/marketing teachers perceptions of the challenges faced by new teachers as well as the types of support that they were willing to provide to new…

Changing educational priorities are reflected both in the literature and the models that seek to describe initial teachers' professional formation and learning. However, do new teachers' experiences conform to these models? A sampling of Hong Kong secondary school teachers over their first year as full-time teachers provides data from…

Data in this report reveals that collectively bargaining agreements are not the source of the teacher quality problem in urban school districts. The data shows that collective bargaining agreements are associated with reduced teacher transfer activity, especially in high-poverty schools, and less reliance on first-year teachers to staff…

Background: For ten years, the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996) have served as the foundation for Connecticut's teacher certification in science and the expectations of teacher practice secondary science classrooms. Furthermore, beginning science teachers must demonstrate the ability to teach in an…

This study examines how social studies preservice teachers use pedagogical and technological applications and skills employed during their teacher education program, specifically the methods block. Data were collected from the methods course experience through student teaching and then through case study research with first-year teachers. Results…

Beliefs regarding classroom management vary among teachers and play an important role in effective instruction. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the differences between the beliefs of experienced teachers and novice teachers regarding classroom management styles. Within this study, classroom management is defined as a…

This publication looks at approaches and strategies available to beginning and experienced teachers to increase their effectiveness in the classroom setting. The book highlights ways in which a classroom may be organized and curriculum decisions made to encourage students to achieve their academic potential. Chapters cover the following topics:…

This study outlines and evaluates an urban school district's mentoring program in which 18 veteran teachers are selected to serve as full-time mentors for up to 10 beginning teachers or 4 persons participating in an alternative certification program. Methods of data collection included surveys and focus group interviews with mentor teachers,…

This introductory-level training program is designed to develop in classroom teachers the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for functioning as successful mentors to novice North Carolina teachers. This includes background and perspectives for mentoring in North Carolina; Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC)…

This book presents a guide for setting up a new teacher mentoring program. Chapter 1, "Relating," stresses the important part a relationship plays in the mentoring process. A set of introspective exercises teaches ways to establish trust and pay attention to nonverbal communication. Chapter 2, "Assessing," provides ways to gather and diagnose data…