Supporting Beginning Teachers

Give new teachers the time and professional guidance they need to become expert teachers. Investigate key research, and examine the four types of support—physical, emotional, instructional, and institutional—that are crucial during a teacher’s first year in the classroom. Discover essential strategies for K–12 mentors, coaches, and school leaders to develop an effective mentoring program schoolwide.

Support and retain your best and brightest new teachers. The second edition of this acclaimed book retains much of what made the original a classic, but now offers the latest research along with new insights, strategies, and best practices. Whether you're a K-12 mentor, coach, or school leader, you will gain evidence-based actions you can take today to successfully guide educators during their initial years in the profession. Use this book to better support overwhelmed teachers during their first, critical years: Understand why good teachers quit, the causes of high turnover rates, and how to deal with burnout. Learn how to create a comprehensive mentoring program, designed to offer career guidance and build new teachers' expertise by targeting their unique needs. Review numerous strategies pertaining to four types of support: (1) physical, (2) institutional, (3) emotional, and (4) instructional. Discover how to foster positive mentor-mentee relationships for beginning teacher support and professional growth. Find reproducible tools, templates, and reflection questions to enhance your understanding. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Research and Theory Chapter 2: Designing an Effective Mentoring Program Chapter 3: Providing Physical Support Chapter 4: Providing Institutional Support Chapter 5: Providing Emotional Support Chapter 6: Providing Instructional Support Epilogue Appendix: Reflections of a Beginning Teacher References and Resources Index

This book draws together various theoretical and research-based perspectives to examine the institutionalization of mentoring processes for beginning teachers. Teacher induction, defined as the guidance provided to new teachers, is increasingly gaining traction as a key stage in promoting quality education. Major efforts have been put into reducing transitional challenges from being a student teacher to a practicing teacher; optimizing professional relationships and socialization into school dynamics; and increasing teacher retention. Mentoring has been proven to add benefits in assisting beginning teachers during the early years of their teaching career, because it provides the required knowledge and skills to face uncertain school scenarios and the complexities of practice. However, teacher induction programs are not part of regular instruction in many countries. The lack of teacher training during the induction phase might result in lower levels of commitment, professional isolation, or even attrition. This book calls for more concrete mentoring processes for early career teachers, and questions how this can be put into practice.

Teachers in their first few years of their teaching career require high quality, structured support to begin the journey towards becoming experts. Establishing research-based best practices and working habits set up early career teachers for a fulfilling and successful career. The requirements of teachers are constantly changing, and teachers need to continually adapt their knowledge and practices to fit schools’ changing demographics. Having a toolbox of research-based best practices to draw upon can support early career teachers as they move from theory to practical application when the learning curve is the steepest. Strengthening the system of support includes increasing teachers’ influence over their day-to-day work and developing positive and supportive cultures of learning. Supporting Early Career Teachers With Research-Based Practices presents both theoretical and practical research to support the conceptual understanding of educational praxis for common areas with which early career educators may require additional expertise or support. This book is intended to be a valuable contribution to the body of literature in the field of education by supplying research-based teaching practices for modern education. Primary topics covered include professional learning, classroom management, student-teacher relationships, teaching diverse students and inclusive educational practices, and teacher self-care strategies. This book is a valuable reference tool for early career teachers of all subject areas and grade levels, school administrators, teacher mentors and guides, education faculty in higher education, educational researchers, curriculum developers, instructional facilitators, practicing teachers, pre-service teachers, professional development coordinators, teacher educators, researchers, academicians, and students interested in teaching practices and support for the early career teacher.

This open access book follows the development of the Building Resilience in Teacher Education (BRiTE) project across Australia and internationally. Drawing on the success of this project and the related research collaborations that have since emerged, it highlights the importance of cultivating resilience at various stages of teachers’ careers. Divided into three sections, the book includes conceptual, empirical and applied chapters, designed to introduce readers to the field of research, provide empirical evidence and showcase innovative applications. The respective chapters illustrate the ways in which teacher resilience can be enhanced in a variety of contexts, and address specific learning activities, case studies, resources and strategies, student feedback and applied outcomes. They also consider future directions including cross-cultural applications and the use of technologies such as augmented reality. The book will appeal to researchers, teacher educators and teachers, as well as those interested in supporting the cultivation and ongoing development of professional resilience for pre-service and practicing teachers.

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Table of Contents -- About the Author -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4 -- Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6 -- Epilogue -- Appendix A -- Appendix B -- References and Resources -- Index