Teacher induction and professional development

The literature suggests that teachers‘ professional learning and development occurs in three phases of an individual‘s career: pre-service, induction, and in- service teacher education, which includes on-going professional development activities. All three phases play an important role in enhancing teacher learning and professional development. However, the phases that are considered of most significance to teachers‘ practices and their retention in the profession are induction and continuing professional development. Therefore, it is vitally important that pedagogies used during these phases are well supported and resourced by school systems, including teachers‘ collaborative efforts to support one another, in order to make a difference (Anthony et al., 2007a) to the professional learning and development of pre-service and beginning teachers.

Induction is the recognition of the new teacher‘s progression from teacher-learner to teacher of students (Moskowitz & Stephens, 1997; Smith & Ingersoll, 2004). Continuing teacher professional development involves providing opportunities for teachers to reflect on their own practices and learn from their teaching experiences (Feiman-Nemser, 2001a). Furthermore, induction has been viewed as the best form of professional development for beginning teachers to ―acculturate them to the school‖ (Wong, 2002, p. 52) and provide them with the opportunity to reflect on their existing knowledge and practices in order to make necessary improvements. It has been variously defined as the period of transition from being

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a student teacher to being a teacher of students (Moskowitz & Stephens, 1997), the orientation of new teachers into their teaching careers (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004), ―the process by which novices are initiated into the teaching profession, and into a particular school‖ (Fletcher, Strong, & Villar, 2007, p. 4), and ―the support provided for provisionally registered teachers, until they are judged to meet requirements for full registration‖ (Cameron & Baker, 2004). However, induction also means more than these. It involves a system-wide, coherent, comprehensive training and support process (Wong, 2004) aimed at supporting beginning teachers in order to improve teacher quality and effectiveness (Darling- Hammond, 2006a), and to retain teachers in the profession (Feiman-Nemser, 2001b).

For the purposes of this study, induction is viewed as an important link between pre-service teacher education and the first two years of teaching. It should therefore provide beginning teachers with a well-informed and comprehensive teacher induction programme relevant to their socio-cultural context, and with ample opportunity for observation, practice, and self-reflection. Imig & Imig (2006) contend that context matters, and that new teachers need to be prepared to cope with the realities posed by school situations that they are likely to encounter. This underscores the need to identify and make sense of the self-perceptions and professional learning experiences of beginning teachers in different socio-cultural contexts, including the kind of support they need when they begin their teaching careers, and the kind of professional support they receive from the schools in which they are placed. It is important that decisions relating to induction programmes for beginning teachers take into consideration the expressed needs of beginning teachers, as well as the contextual factors that exist within specific socio-cultural settings (Flores, 2001).

In a survey of teacher induction programmes at case-study sites in Australia (Northern Territory), Japan, and New Zealand, Moskowitz and Stephens (1997) found that effective teacher induction programmes are characterised by:

...a culture of shared responsibility and an environment where all professionals take active roles in a new teacher‘s acculturation and

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transition, … [the pursuit of] a multi-pronged set of support strategies, including mentoring, modelling good teacher practice, orientations, and in- service training...[and are] focused on assisting new teachers, and not on assessing their competence. (p. iv).

Research also confirms that the factors that contribute to the effective induction of teachers include:

structured, sustained, intensive professional development programmes that allow new teachers to observe others, to be observed by others, and to be part of networks or study groups where all teachers share together, grow together, and learn to respect each other‘s work (Wong, 2004, p. 41).

If the ultimate purpose of schooling is to help students succeed in their learning, every effort should be made to support teachers‘ learning and professional development based on the above observations. It could be that the typical ITE programme is too short to fully prepare teachers for their teaching roles, and that teachers can learn more from their actual classroom teaching experiences. Certainly there is much research evidence which suggests that initial teacher education cannot fully prepare teachers for all aspects of teaching (Loughran, 2007). Nonetheless, it starts them on their journey of continuing professional development. Therefore, it is imperative that beginning teachers are provided with the necessary professional support and opportunities to develop not only their pedagogical, content and curricula knowledge and skills but also the commitment needed for optimal teaching (Darling-Hammond, 2006a), and a positive disposition towards their work.

It is also important to bear in mind that teachers who are recruited today will be teachers for the next decade or two, and that their success will determine the success of students in the next 20 years or more (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005; Wong, 2004). Moreover, the knowledge base of society changes and increases continuously: hence, the demand for teachers to meet the learning requirements of their students that match employment and parental expectations also increases (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005) with each decade. Teachers

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therefore need to be provided with continuing professional development that will keep them up-to-date with new knowledge and teaching practices. Such professional development programmes should provide teachers with opportunities to reflect and to learn from their own teaching experiences, and the insights of more knowledgeable and experienced teachers (Feiman-Nemser, 2001b).

Beginning teacher induction programmes can involve a variety of elements and includes activities such as ―workshops, collaborations, support systems, orientation seminars...and mentoring‖ (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004, p. 683). They should also ―introduce new teachers to the responsibilities, missions, and philosophies of their schools …treat teachers as lifelong learners from their very first day of teaching... [and] include all the things done to support new teachers and to acculturate them to teaching‖ (Wong, 2002, p. 43). There needs to be enculturation at the school level. In New Zealand, this involves the deputy principal at the school level, head of department at the department level, and a ―buddy‖ at the subject level (Anthony et al., 2007a). More importantly, it should extend beyond the induction period and be integrated into a career-long professional development programme for all teachers.

The following section examines some of the literature on how schools can be developed into communities of learning which provide opportunities for teachers to support each other in their learning and professional development.