Clinging to the Edge of Chaos: The Emergence of Practice in the First Year of Teaching

Background/Context New teachers must cope with various instructional, personal and organizational challenges, an experience that often leads to difficulties enacting innovative, student-centered instructional practices learned in their preservice programs and contributes to high rates of teacher attrition. Purpose Drawing on complexity theory, this review of empirical research takes an organizational or “systems” perspective on the experiences of first-year teachers as they transition from preservice education to the teaching profession. In so doing, we aim to shift away from constructions of the teacher as an autonomous actor and instead build a more complex, nuanced, and layered understanding of the multidimensional influences that work together to shape the practices of novice teachers. Research Design We conducted a metasynthesis of 46 studies that met the following criteria: (a) were focused on first-year teachers, (b) offered sufficient description of participants’ professional practices, (c) featured participants who attended a university-based preparation program, and (d) were conducted since 1990. We first recorded each study's methods, findings, and descriptions of first-year teacher practices. As a second level of analysis, we used a complexity lens to identify the systems comprising first-year teacher practices, noting how those systems and their component or elements interacted to shape first-year teaching. Findings/Results We found that common patterns of interactions between and among systems of first-year teaching—including the teacher herself, the classroom, the school, and the larger district, state, and federal environments—tend to reinforce traditional, teacher-centered practices. Yet, in some studies, conditions surfaced that enabled participants’ to enact student-centered and equity-minded teaching practices learned in their preservice programs. Conclusions/Recommendations Authors suggest that taking a complex systems view of beginning teaching, rather than singularly focusing on the teacher's actions out of context, can reveal opportunities for fostering more supportive, enabling conditions for new teachers to enact innovative practices that many preservice programs promote and experience a smoother transition into teaching.

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Challenges for New Teachers and Ways of Coping with Them

Journal of Education and Learning ◽

10.5539/jel.v6n3p265 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 265 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Samantha L. Dias-Lacy ◽

Ruth V. Guirguis

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Administrative Support ◽

Experienced Teachers ◽

Mentoring Programs ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Teachers ◽

Ways Of Coping ◽

First Year Teacher ◽

The Impact ◽

Research Analysis

The first year of a teacher’s career can determine their longevity within the field of education. The issues of first year teachers were analyzed through a grounded theory qualitative research analysis. The results of this study indicate that a first year teacher may feel stress, lack appropriate support, and may feel unprepared to handle behavioral and academic issues among their students. Based on the literature review, the implementation of mentoring programs between new and experienced teachers not only benefited novice teachers but guided them to cope and face the anxieties during the first year in the classroom. Further implications are presented in the regarding some mentoring programs and the impact for first year teachers when not implemented due to limited funding and/or lack of administrative support.

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First year teacher of first year teachers: A reflection on teacher training in the field of piano pedagogy

International Journal of Music Education ◽

10.1177/0255761412462970 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 409-424 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Kristin Elgersma

Keyword(s):

Teacher Training ◽

Piano Pedagogy ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Teachers ◽

First Year Teacher

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Disconnected Development? The Importance of Specific Human Capital in the Transition From Student Teaching to the Classroom

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis ◽

10.3102/01623737211025306 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 016237372110253

Author(s):

John M. Krieg ◽

Dan Goldhaber ◽

Roddy Theobald

Keyword(s):

Student Teaching ◽

Early Career ◽

First Year ◽

School Type ◽

Teacher Hiring ◽

First Year Teachers ◽

First Year Teacher ◽

Policy Lever ◽

Specific Human Capital ◽

First Job

We use a novel database of student teaching placements in Washington State to investigate teachers’ transitions from student teaching classrooms to first job classrooms and the implications for student achievement. We find first-year teachers are more effective when they teach in the same or an adjacent grade, in the same school type, or in a classroom with student demographics similar to their student teaching classroom. We document that only 27% of first-year teachers are teaching the same grade they student taught, and that first-year teachers tend to begin their careers in higher poverty classrooms than their student teaching placements. This suggests that better aligning student teacher placements with first-year teacher hiring could be a policy lever for improving early-career teacher effectiveness.

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Feeling Like a First Year Teacher

Technology Integration in Higher Education - Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-147-8.ch004 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 42-57

Author(s):

Lloyd P. Rieber ◽

Gregory M. Francom ◽

Lucas John Jensen

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Online Teaching ◽

Teaching Style ◽

First Year ◽

College Instructors ◽

First Year Teachers ◽

Teaching Experiences ◽

Face To Face ◽

Online Technology ◽

First Year Teacher

An ever increasing number of college instructors are finding themselves asked or required to teach online. While some embrace this opportunity, others are making this transition with some reluctance. The move from face-to-face to online teaching can be difficult, and unprepared instructors may become discouraged or, even worse, may allow mediocrity to creep into their teaching. In this chapter, a different perspective is offered to instructors who are experienced, but new to online learning to help them make the adjustment—imagining once again themselves as first year teachers. Doing so should help them to revisit the enthusiasm, daring, exhilaration, and yes, even terror that they experienced when they first began teaching. Three fundamental principles are offered to guide college teachers in their earliest online teaching experiences. Examples are provided to show how one instructor found innovative ways to use online technology that were consistent with his teaching style.

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Tips for First Year Teachers from a First-Year Teacher

Kappa Delta Pi Record ◽

10.1080/00228958.1986.10517775 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 102-104

Author(s):

Nancy Palmer

Keyword(s):

First Year ◽

First Year Teachers ◽

First Year Teacher

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Teacher! Teacher! An Artistic Exploration of the True-Story Troubles and Triumphs of First-Year Teachers

Culture Studies &#x2194 Critical Methodologies ◽

10.1177/1532708619885404 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (5) ◽

pp. 471-484

Author(s):

Jamie Simpson Steele ◽

Nicholas Brown ◽

Ronnie Tiffany-Kinder ◽

Chloe Amos ◽

Andy Luu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

New Teachers ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Teachers ◽

Attrition Rates ◽

True Story ◽

Applied Theater ◽

And Performance

New teachers often feel unprepared to meet the demands of the profession, and attrition rates indicate approximately half will leave within their first 5 years. To address this problem, this applied theater project utilized ethnodrama, integrating research and performance, to stage the stories of first-year teachers. Researchers interviewed 18 first-year teachers and an ensemble of performers then developed a series of monologues, dances, poems, songs, and scenes. These vignettes fit within three categories: (a) The Beginning; (b) The Students; and (c) The Profession. This script documents that performance.

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Formatively assessing prospective teachers’ skills in leading mathematics discussions

Educational Studies in Mathematics ◽

10.1007/s10649-021-10070-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Meghan Shaughnessy ◽

Nicole M. Garcia ◽

Michaela Krug O’Neill ◽

Sarah Kate Selling ◽

Amber T. Willis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Elementary Teachers ◽

Formative Assessment ◽

Conceptual Understanding ◽

Prospective Teachers ◽

First Year ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

First Year Teachers ◽

Education Programs ◽

Prospective Elementary Teachers ◽

Making Sense

AbstractMathematics discussions are important for helping students to develop conceptual understanding and to learn disciplinary norms and practices. In recent years, there has been increased attention to teaching prospective teachers to lead discussions with students. This paper examines the possibilities of designing a formative assessment that gathers information about prospective elementary teachers’ skills with leading problem-based mathematics discussions and makes sense of such information. A decomposition of the practice of leading discussions was developed and used to design the assessment. Nine first-year teachers who graduated from a range of different teacher education programs participated in the study. The findings reveal that our formative assessment works to gather information about teachers’ capabilities with leading discussions and that the associated tools support making sense of the information gathered. This suggests that such tools could be useful to support the formative assessment of the developing capabilities of prospective teachers.

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What Trainee Teachers and Teachers Should Know About Aboriginal Children.

The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education ◽

10.1017/s0310582200010725 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 7 (5) ◽

pp. 29-32

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

New South ◽

New South Wales ◽

Aboriginal Education ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Teachers ◽

Trainee Teachers ◽

Aboriginal Students ◽

South Wales ◽

Aboriginal Children ◽

Consultative Group

The New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group feels that more emphasis needs to be placed on the training of teachers in regards to Aboriginal education.Many first year teachers are sent to country areas with a relatively high percentage of Aboriginal students. In the main, these teachers have had little or no contact with Aboriginal children or parents.

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