A growing body of research indicates that teachers have different job skills, knowledge, behavior, attitudes, and concerns at different points in their careers. Many of these changes seem to follow a regular developmental pattern from which three stages can be discerned. Stage I is the survival stage, during which beginning teachers are concerned…

This study examined the factors that most concerned beginning teachers about their first year of teaching. The study assessed the attitudes of 24 preservice teachers who were enrolled in a senior-level undergraduate methods course and 36 graduate students with teaching experience who were enrolled in a graduate level methods course. Participants…

Study investigated teacher differences in attributions and perceptions concerning student behavior. Expert, advanced beginner, and novice teachers discussed perceptions of students, attribution of behavior, and prediction of future performance. They differed in how they discussed student behavior and dealt with misbehavior but not in prediction of…

In this paper the authors focus on one early-career teacher, co-author Natalie Gibson, whose initial teaching experiences were mediated by educational settings shaped by these different and often conflicting traditions. Their study of Natalie's early-career trajectory is concerned with understanding her effort to develop a conception of…

This book is a result of a study on best practices used by teachers. The author presents a comprehensive discussion of how successful teachers handle classroom management and details strategies increasing student achievement, teaching for retention and transfer, assessing student understanding, and more. Features include: (1) Real-life classroom…

This paper describes a study of the differences between problem solving skills of graduate students in education who have had full-time teaching experience and those who have not. Information was gathered to determine the extent to which the use of concepts in problem solving and the use of problem solving strategies differ among educators as a…

Through literature reviews, discussions, and a survey of members of the Council for Exceptional Children, a common core of knowledge and skills essential for entry-level special education teachers was developed, composed of 107 statements in 8 categories. The categories include: (1) philosophical, historical, and legal foundations of special…

This text lists crucial activities a teacher can undertake in preparation for the first day of school. The suggestions are especially helpful for beginning, transfer, and student teachers. They may also be used by experienced teachers, administrators, and teacher educators. Suggestions are organized in the format of a 60-day countdown to the first…

This paper draws heavily on quantitative synthesis of empirical research on teaching, and for comparison, related influences on learning, such as the student's motivation, home environment, and exposure to television. The first section explains the techniques of explicit search and selection of evidence and the statistical evaluation and summary…

A study was aimed at developing a methodology for describing competent classroom teaching performance and analyzing components of competent classroom decision making to be used in improving preservice and inservice teacher training programs. Information processing research suggests that expertise in semantically rich domains involves the ability…

This book presents 36 case studies, based on data gathered from first-year teachers throughout the country, that provide direct involvement with some of the most common and important experiences new teachers face. By typing together practice and theory in the study of real problems, prospective teachers will be able to: (1) identify and use major…

This paper reports data from a program of research examining how teachers learn the practical, professional knowledge of teaching. Data collection focused on interviews with teachers immediately following a period of classroom observation. Interviews were spaced at monthly intervals when possible. The 15 participants included teachers in training,…

This handbook offers pre-planning (before school opens) guidelines for elementary school teachers. Outlines contain suggestions for considerations in the areas of: (1) facilities, personnel, and services; (2) district and school rules, procedures, and policies; (3) individual students; (4) instructional resources; (5) community resources; (6) room…

In a discussion of revitalizing teacher preparation programs, the questions of what a beginning teacher should know and be able to do in order to function at a fully professional level were considered. A description is presented of Operation PROTEACH activities at the University of Florida in Gainesville. This operation was generated by several…

This study sought to describe how first-year teachers perceived ways in which they had changed during the school year. Subjects of the research were 13 first-year teachers at the elementary, junior and senior high school levels. Data were gathered during two structured, tape-recorded interviews: one between mid-March and mid-April, and the second…