Teacher experience has long been a central pillar of teacher workforce policies in U.S. school systems. The underlying assumption behind many of these policies is that experience promotes effectiveness, but is this really the case? What does existing evidence tell us about how, why, and for whom teacher experience matters? This policy brief…

Although teachers' first years in the profession are a widely studied field, the factors that would help to understand the difficulty or the ease with which individuals enter full time teaching and construct their professional identity are still little studied. This narrative study approaches the topic by comparing two newly qualified teachers'…

This article focuses on how recent graduates perceive the rigour of the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) initial teacher education (ITE) programme. The article is based on qualitative data collected from a purposely selected sample of 19 beginner teachers who graduated from two higher education institutions that offer PGCE programmes…

Evidence linking teacher quality and the "performance" of education systems has led to a widespread emphasis on improving the quality of entrants to teaching. In the USA and UK particularly, policymakers have encouraged entrants who have been highly successful in other careers to switch to teaching, on the assumption that they bring…

This study focuses on the lived experiences of five novice teachers during their first academic year of teaching. This article analyzes the experiences of new teachers based on long-term data collection throughout a school year as one means of bridging the gap between teacher preparation and actual teaching practice. The findings indicate that…

Like a majority of other states, Oklahoma has provided for alternative methods to teacher certification. This study examines the perceptions of principals and teachers regarding the level of preparedness and ability to develop effectiveness qualities of novice teachers from the Alternative Placement Program and Oklahoma colleges of education. The…

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.…

Districts nationwide are implementing teacher induction programs as a strategy to increase both beginning teacher retention and student achievement. The induction of beginning teachers has been widely acknowledged as important for teachers' feelings of success and their retention (Darling-Hammond, 1994; Huling-Austin, 1989; Smylie, 1994).…

For a novice academic, the first experience of marking can be as memorable as preparing for and giving the first teaching session. Yet, while academic reflections and narratives abound for the latter, there is a paucity of literature regarding the former. This study begins to address this lack of literature through an exploration of six newly…

This article, which comes out of a research project exploring teaching as intellectual work, focuses specifically on a young woman who worked as a substitute teacher after she graduated from a two-year teacher education program at her local university. For Penny, substitute teaching was an interruption as she shaped a professional life moving…

This casual-comparative study was conducted to determine the professional development needs of teaching faculty with fewer than 6 years of university teaching experience (n = 67). Faculty were compared on the level of teaching assistantship responsibility during their graduate degree program. The purpose of this article is to provide faculty…

This article reports on a qualitative study investigating a group of novice ESL teachers' teaching experiences with ethnic minority students in secondary schools in Hong Kong. It finds that, while teachers argue that society has not been tolerant enough of ethnic minorities, they nonetheless believe that ethnic minorities should comply with…

The professional learning communities and communities of practice approaches in the arena of education appear to hold considerable promise for sustainable school improvement. These approaches flow from the assumption that teacher's collaboration is central to transform a school into a learning organization. They also provide opportunities for…

We examined several facets of general pedagogical knowledge and skills of early career mathematics teachers, asking how they are associated with characteristics of teacher education, teaching experience, and working conditions. Declarative general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) was assessed via a paper-and-pencil test, while early career teachers'…

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand, interpret, and present the finding of how second year participants of the Teach for America (TFA) program perceived their professional needs from the mentor assigned to then within the school district and within the Teach for America program. The participants were Teach for…