Session Information
10 SES 01 B, Research on Teacher Induction and Early Career Teachers
Paper Session
Contribution
This paper reports part of the results from a longitudinal study conducted to collect baseline information from student teachers about the initial teacher preparation programmes at the National Institute of Education, Singapore, and their initial years as beginning teachers in the Singapore school system. The first phase investigated why student teachers joined the teaching profession, their attitudes, and perceived knowledge and skill levels towards teaching at the beginning and end of the teacher preparation programme. Results for this phase has been reported in Wong, Chong, Choy, Wong, and Goh (2008), Lim-Teo, Low, Wong, and Chong (2008) and Chong, Wong, Choy, Wong, and Goh (2010).
The second phase of the study followed the teachers into their first and third year of teaching as beginning teachers. In these initial years, the perceptions of the school administrators of the professional readiness of the beginning teachers were captured. This paper will report the results of the perceptions of the school administrators.
The first years of teaching can be challenging and difficult. It is during this period that beginning teachers navigate to identify themselves professionally - in ways that see them coping with the tasks of teaching and responsibilities both inside and outside the classrooms within a system they may not be familiar with or thoroughly understand (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004). Kevin Ryan (1986) described the first year as “the most turbulent, difficult, perplexing, frustrating and painful one in a young teacher’s life” (p. 3).
One source of insight into beginning teachers’ concerns is how stakeholders (principals, heads of department) perceive beginning teachers’ competence. Stakeholders’ perceptions of beginning teachers’ competence are integral to quality enhancement and to gain a comprehensive view of the accomplishments, challenges and issues of the initial years of teaching. Stakeholders’ perceptions of beginning teachers’ preparedness form an important focus that can be triangulated with other data and yield valuable information and insights into feedback on classroom performance and support for school teaching (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2004; Smith & Ingersoll, 2004). This feedback will also provide a unique combination of insight and hindsight that teacher education programmes can draw from when making programme improvement decisions. However, there seems to be a lack of information on how stakeholders perceive beginning teachers’ competence even though it has been found that stakeholders’ perceptions may have effects on beginning teachers’ teaching and learning (Ballantyre, Thompson, & Taylor, 1998). Hence, the perception of stakeholders is thus worthy of greater attention.
The purpose of this paper is thus to examine school administrators’ perceptions of professional readiness of a cohort beginning teachers at the end of their first and third year of teaching, and to investigate the changes, if any, in their perceptions of their beginning teachers’ professional readiness.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Alliance for Excellent Education (2004). Tapping the potential: Retaining and developing high-quality teachers. Retrieved 14 October, 2010 from http://www.all4ed.org/publications/TappingThePotential/index.html Ballantyne, R., Thompson, R., & Taylor, P. (1998). Principals’ conceptions of competent beginning teachers. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 26(1), 51-64. Chong, S., Wong, A. F. L., Choy, D., Wong, I., Y-F., & Goh, K. C. (2010). Perception changes in knowledge and skills of graduating student teachers: A Singapore study. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 19(2), 333-345. Lim-Teo, S. K., Low, E. L., Wong, A. F. L., & Chong, S. (2008). Motivation, competence and confidence to teach ? an exploratory study of the impact of an initial teacher preparation (ITP) programme on beginning primary school teachers. KEDI Journal of Educational Policy, 5(2), 41-61. Ryan, K. (1986). The inductions of new teachers. Phi Delta Kappa. Indiana: Educational Foundation. Smith, T., & Ingersoll, R. (2004). What are the effects of induction and mentoring on beginning teacher turnover? American Educational Research Journal, 41(3), 681- 714. Wong, A. F. L.. Chong, S., Choy, Wong, I., Y-F., & Goh, K. C. (2008). A comparison of perceptions of knowledge and skills held by primary and secondary teachers: From the entry to exit of their preservice programme. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 33(3), 77-93.
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