Classroom Management Coaching for First-Year Urban Teachers: Purpose, Design, and Implementation

This qualitative study explores one urban district's purpose, design, and implementation of a unique classroom management coaching program for first-year teachers (FYTs). Through interviews of coaches, assistant principals, and district administrators, we identify why and how this program supported FYTs’ struggles with classroom management. Results highlight difficulties related to culturally responsive classroom management, which was mitigated by district coaches who provided individualized support. Data also indicates specific misconceptions held by FYTs, strategic district decisions in designing the coaching program, and challenges encountered throughout implementation. Findings have implications for the preparation and support of culturally responsive classroom management for FYTs.

Greener than ever? A look at the newest teachers in our public schools

Drawing on nationally representative data from the 1988 to 2018 school years, the authors provide an overview of some of the key changes in the characteristics of first-year teachers in the U.S., including racial/ethnic identity, education levels, subject area, and certification status. The data also show that new teachers have become increasingly more likely, compared to experienced teachers, to work in schools with a greater fraction of students of color, which has consequences for equitable teacher assignments and teacher attrition.

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

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.

Formatively assessing prospective teachers’ skills in leading mathematics discussions

Mathematics 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.

THE PLIGHT OF FIRST-YEAR TEACHERS IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS

First-year teachers are teachers who are new to teaching. The number of public school teachers is increasing in many countries and areas. Meanwhile, data also showed that some newly qualified teachers anticipated leaving or already left after the first year teaching. The purpose of the study aims to present a review and synthesize literature regarding the challenges of first-year teachers in public primary schools. Peer-reviewed articles (N=30) are collected from Google Scholar via systematically searching key words “first-year teachers” with one or more of the following terms: challenge, difficulty, attrition, leaving, and public primary schools. The results show first-year teachers meet general challenges listed as below: (a) building a professional teacher identity, (b) applying teaching theories in real class practice, and (c) handling the same heavy teaching loads and responsibilities as experienced teachers. In addition, first-year teachers in Shanghai public primary schools also meet the following challenges: (d) not having enough pre-service teaching programs, (e) facing high competition and a workload, and (f) building positive and stable relationships with parents/administrators. Considering by new qualified teachers’ internal motivation and the external challenge they meet, first-year teachers are overwhelmed in dealing with these imbalances.

Examining preparation of general education teachers for working with children with disabilities

This qualitative study explored how well prepared first year teachers feel in teaching children with disabilities in the regular classroom. Six elementary school teachers, recent graduates from Faculties of Education in Ontario were interviewed. Findings indicate that the teachers in this study do not feel that their pre-service education program prepared them for the reality of teaching students with disabilities in the regular classroom, and that they will need to look to their School Board for further training. In addition, many feel that they lack the knowledge necessary to design and implement an IEP. The importance of further preparation for first year teachers to work with students with IEPs is discussed and explored.

Examining preparation of general education teachers for working with children with disabilities

This qualitative study explored how well prepared first year teachers feel in teaching children with disabilities in the regular classroom. Six elementary school teachers, recent graduates from Faculties of Education in Ontario were interviewed. Findings indicate that the teachers in this study do not feel that their pre-service education program prepared them for the reality of teaching students with disabilities in the regular classroom, and that they will need to look to their School Board for further training. In addition, many feel that they lack the knowledge necessary to design and implement an IEP. The importance of further preparation for first year teachers to work with students with IEPs is discussed and explored.

Down the Rabbit Hole: A Fantastical First Year of Teaching

Interviews and observations of first year teachers in the northeastern United States were used to construct a comic. The comic communicates the excitement, fears, and competing demands of a beginning teacher. The dialogue and setting are presented as surrealist to help the reader gain an understanding of the affective realities that the teachers expressed when describing their early teaching experiences. This approach allows for the multiple dimensions of the teachers’ lived experiences to be experienced in ways that a traditional text does not allow. The work takes a critical look at the transition of beginning teachers into their careers and is meant to trouble notions of standardization in both teacher preparation and curriculum design. This arts-based approach recognizes performance as both a method of investigation and representation (Worthen, 1998). Given that public education is often a prominent part of societal discourse, this modality allows the reader the opportunity to make meaning of the data by experiencing the words on the page (Leavy, 2009). The illustrations allow the reader to experience the words differently than traditional text. In this way, dramatizing the data is a form of critical pedagogy (Denzin, 2006).