The focus group of beginning teachers took the stapled sheets I handed them. “This is what the first- and second-year teachers we surveyed told us,” I said. “What do you make of this?”
We considered the pages of survey data, which included a list of new teacher support strategies, rank-ordered by the value assigned to them by respondents, along with quotes and summaries from open-ended questions. “Interestingly, the top four or five items are all about spending time with other, more experienced teachers,” observed Mark, one of the novice teachers in the group. He continued, a little grimly, “We didn't get that.”
Valued Strategies
The data the beginning teachers and I were exploring together came from a survey conducted in six Georgia school districts, driven by the question, What helps beginning teachers? The districts, partners in the Georgia Systemic Teacher Education Program (GSTEP), had engaged in various teacher induction activities. To learn what was working best, the GSTEP partners conducted surveys and collected additional data through other means, such as this focus group.
- Giving new teachers the opportunity to observe other teachers.
- Assigning mentors to new teachers.
- Providing new teachers with feedback based on classroom observations.
- Providing new teachers with co-planning time with other teachers.
- Assigning new teachers to smaller classes.
- Giving new teachers the opportunity to observe other teachers.
- Assigning new teachers to smaller classes.
- Assigning mentors to new teachers. (Tied with no. 4.)
- Providing new teachers with co-planning time with other teachers.
- Providing new teachers with feedback based on classroom observations.
With the exception of assigning new teachers to smaller classes, all of the five top-ranked strategies both years involved opportunities to work with other teachers.
Teachers underscored their desire to learn from others in their responses to the open-ended question, “What piece of advice would you give a teacher new to your school?” By far the most common advice was to be proactive about asking for information and assistance and to take every chance to observe what other teachers are doing. “Take advantage of the people around you. They are a wealth of information, encouragement, and support,” urged one respondent. “Don't be afraid to ask questions from all teachers in the school. They can give you ideas about curriculum and discipline and provide information about students,” offered another.
The open-ended question “What was your biggest surprise?” generated many comments about paperwork and noninstructional duties as well as general laments about the lack of time to get everything done. In 2003, 35 percent of the comments fell into this category—quite a strong response rate for an open-ended question. That percentage rose even further in 2004, to 45 percent.
A Healthy Dialogue
Focus group participants commented on the individual induction strategies listed. The top-rated strategy—giving teachers the opportunity to observe other teachers—drew quick agreement. As one focus group participant explained,When I see [good teaching], it means more than having them tell me. I see how the classroom is organized. I see things I would never know to ask about.
Another strategy—assigning mentors—sparked a particularly lively discussion, indicating a variety of experiences across the group. Marcia expressed surprise that it ranked so high. “I'd think other things below it would be more important. Like smaller classes—I'm surprised that's not number one.” Lisa responded thoughtfully,Maybe being assigned to a smaller class isn't ranked number one because if it doesn't happen, as a new teacher, you don't realize that having even five fewer kids will help. I didn't know that until my third year, when I had a smaller class.
Returning to the topic of mentors, Heather thought that mentoring relationships sounded great in theory, but were not always useful in practice: “The mentor ideal is not a reality,” she said. Several other teachers agreed, telling stories about how their mentors were unavailable or so badly matched that they couldn't offer much help: “She tried and would give me all this great material, but it was not appropriate for my students,” said Naomi.
But Chris disagreed:I will speak pro-mentor. My mentor was not the only person who helped me, but she introduced me to the group of teachers that could help me. She helped me link to others, helped me network with others who could provide more help.
Mark was grateful for help in prioritizing: “My mentor was good about saying, ‘This is important to do now; this can wait.’”
The group also confirmed and elaborated on certain responses from the open-ended questions on the survey. A comment about “the amount of info that people assume you should know even though you have never taught before” clearly resonated with the group. Heather shared how she brought her lunch each day simply because the system for buying lunch at school was so unclear. Others added their own stories about being confronted with confusing paperwork and requirements. These teachers also reiterated survey respondents' complaints about duties and issues that took time away from instruction. They expressed their own frustrations with “two-hour meetings with two kernels of information” and other intrusions into their planning time. Robert said,I had meetings during each of my planning periods last week. What I need to do to be a better teacher, I can't do because I have to go to meetings.
Challenging Assumptions
The survey and focus group data challenged the expectations and understandings that the university researchers and district partners, including myself, brought to the project from the literature and our own experience. When we reviewed the survey results, our first reaction was surprise that mentoring was not at the top of the list—in contrast to Marcia's surprise that it was so high. This disconnect between our expectations and the feedback led to an increased research focus on mentoring. Through revisions in the 2004 survey and focus groups with mentors, we collected additional data that verified that mentoring relationships varied greatly in their effectiveness.
We were also surprised that paperwork and time pressures overshadowed classroom management issues, long considered the area in which new teachers need the most support. In addition, we had made assumptions that needed reexamining—such as believing that school organizational procedures were clear to new teachers.
Most important, the survey and focus group results identified the difficulty that new teachers had finding time to learn from others without encroaching on planning time.
- New teachers benefit from a variety of opportunities to work with more experienced teachers. In particular, they want to observe other teachers in their classrooms.
- Mentoring is only one piece of induction support, and it can vary greatly in its implementation.
- Time pressures, paperwork, and noninstructional meetings are a major source of stress and frustration for beginning teachers.
Using Data for Decision Making
Many administrators in the six participating districts had previously assigned mentors or provided other support out of good faith alone. The data from the new teacher surveys and focus groups prompted them to reexamine and fine-tune their induction processes.
One district representative looked at the data from our beginning teacher surveys and commented that many of the findings were closely aligned with national findings. She was right. The fact that the data came from local teachers, however, meant that the findings had special significance for us. These were the views of our teachers, not some anonymous national sample. We disaggregated the data by district, using a blind comparison format. That process helped the district representatives identify the areas in which their districts were doing a little better or worse than surrounding ones, which enabled them to focus their support and improvements appropriately.
Implementing change is never smooth or immediate. Nevertheless, we have been able to track some positive initiatives coming from these findings. For example, several districts increased opportunities for new teachers to observe more experienced colleagues. One district went to great lengths to provide access to teachers of similar subjects. District leaders not only arranged observations in other schools but also worked with other districts to provide appropriate matches. The program coordinators reported an unexpected consequence: Their experienced teachers begged for the same opportunity to observe.
Other districts created various learning communities, initially targeted to new teachers but open to veterans as well. A broad initiative involved the creation and support of Critical Friends Groups, in which members collaboratively examine student work and help one another think about improving teaching practices. These learning communities offered opportunities for productive collaboration.
Other interventions included reducing stress caused by lack of time and an overabundance of paperwork and noninstructional duties. For example, administrators monitored the workload of new teachers more carefully and assigned more of them smaller classes.
In addition, we are exploring how to support the people who support new teachers—the mentors, administrators, and education leaders who can also become overwhelmed by too much paperwork and too little time.
Make the Meetings Productive
The study yielded one final lesson—perhaps the most important one. There is an obvious tension between the two strongest messages we heard from beginning teachers: “We want time with other teachers” and “We want fewer meetings!” During the focus group, we asked the participants directly, “How can people trying to help new teachers make sense of this contradiction?” The answer was heartfelt:[I don't want] meetings that don't do anything .... Let us do something in the meeting—plan with other teachers. I can read at home, but I don't have four other teachers at home to work with. Make the meetings productive!
Our challenge, then, is to embed support and professional development for new teachers in the day-to-day work of teaching by building collaborative structures that offer new teachers multiple opportunities to interact with more experienced colleagues while doing meaningful work. Such interactions offer both sorely needed emotional support and instructional support, potentially developing the skills of new teachers and veteran teachers alike.
