There are several concepts focusing on teachers’ professional development across the span of teachers’ careers (Berliner 1986; Bullough 1997; Huberman 1995; Feiman-Nemser 2001; Kagan 1992). The period up to five years of teaching is considered to be the time during which a teacher develops perceptions about teaching that will guide him/her throughout his/her future career. According to Kagan (1992), the first years of teaching appear to constitute a single developmental stage during which novices accomplish three primary tasks: (a) they acquire knowledge of pupils; (b) they use that knowledge to modify and reconstruct their personal images of self as teacher; (c) they develop standard procedural routines that integrate classroom management and instruction.

At an international level several studies based on different conceptual approaches have been conducted to clarify the factors affecting teachers’ professional development (Glatthorn 1995; Bullough 1997; Eraut 2002; Hargreaves 2003, Levin 2003, Tickle 2000). Glatthorn (1995:41) differentiates between three groups of factors that seem to influence teachers’ development: (1) those involving the teacher as person (personal factors), (2) those relating to the context in which the teacher lives and works (contextual factors), and (3) those involving specific interventions to foster teacher development. Several educational innovations in the world are concentrating on supporting novice teachers during their first years at work. In Estonia, the Induction Programme is implemented since 2004 (Eisenschmidt 2006).

The main aim of this study is to analyse and evaluate the extent to which teachers who participated in the support programme- induction programme- in  2004/2005 are satisfied with the teaching profession after five years of practice; what kind of changes have taken place in their pedagogical attitudes, and what kind of influence the school environment has had on their professional development and, through that, on their determination to remain in the profession. To achieve these aims, three main research questions with related sub-questions have been constructed:

1. What changes have taken place in novice teachers’ professional development during their first five years of teaching? The aim is to analyse changes in teachers’ pedagogical attitudes and knowledge.
2. How do factors relating to the school context affect a teacher’s decision to remain in the profession and his/her professional development? The aim is to bring out the most important personal and contextual factors affecting the decision to remain in or to leave the chosen profession. What kind of support did the novice teachers receive from the school environment (mentors, colleagues, school administration)?
3. How do novice teachers assess the effectiveness of the Induction Programme? How do teachers value it and its length after five years of practice? Have mentoring, participation in school development and self- reflection – important aspects of the induction year – become integrated elements of school culture? The aim is to find out if and/or what the school or the Induction Programme could have done and/or did to make the novice teacher decide to remain in the teaching profession.

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