Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
James Ann Lynch
Committee Member
Michael Griffin
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
administrative support, attitudes toward teaching, beginning teacher induction, best teaching practices, classroom management, collaboration, educational support, entry year assistance, faculty observations, home ownership, mentoring, mentees, monthly training sessions, Morrow High School, novice teachers, participant interviews, personal finances, psychological support, qualitative data, retention, school improvement survey, teacher induction, teacher orientation, teacher retention, teaching careers, veteran teachers, workload, workplace support
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to provide psychological and educational support to novice teachers at Morrow High School (MHS). In 2 years, MHS lost a total of 64 teachers. Thirty-four (56%) of those teachers who left MHS were novice teachers. At the end of the 2001-2002 school year, 109 MHS teachers participated in a school improvement survey. Veteran and novice teacher responses were compared. Novice teachers reported more negative responses about their teaching experience at MHS than did their veteran colleagues. Many of those novice teachers left MHS and the teaching profession. Lack of administrative support, an inundation of paperwork, and little to no collaboration with other colleagues were among the reasons for their departure.
The researcher developed a plan for implementing teacher induction activities to support novice teachers, educationally and psychologically. Monthly training sessions, mentoring, and novice teacher observations of veteran teachers were implemented to determine the success of the induction activities at improving teacher attitudes and retaining them in the profession.
During the implementation of this study, novice teachers received supplemental training in an effort to improve their attitudes about teaching and retain them in the teaching profession. Thirty-two novice teachers attended training sessions that included topics from classroom management to personal finances and home ownership. Participants also met with assigned mentors who addressed “mentee” questions and concerns about teaching. Lastly, participants made informal observations of veteran faculty members for the purpose of identifying best teaching practices for their own classrooms. At the end of the implementation, 32 participants answered questions from a school improvement survey. All participants also took part in an interview process. Qualitative data are gathered to determine if participants (inducted novice teachers) reported more favorable responses than non-inducted novice teachers who had taken the same survey at the end of the 2001-2002 school year. This data also helped to determine if teachers would be returning to Morrow High School or the teaching profession the following year.
An analysis of the results revealed that teacher induction activities improved novice teacher attitudes about the teaching profession as evidenced by participant responses on the MHS School Improvement Survey and the participant interviews. The analysis also revealed that 100% of the 32 novice teachers planned to continue their teaching careers and 100% of 32 novice teachers exhibited positive attitudes about the teaching profession.