Effective Teacher Induction Programs

Kenneth Wilson, a Nobel-laureate physicist at The Ohio State University, co-author of Redesigning Education uses the analogy of climbing a mountain when describing what teaching means for new teachers. “There are two ways to get into it,” observes Kenneth Wilson, “You could take a practice run with somebody who has lots of experience and the ability to share it. The other way is to be taken to the base of Everest, dropped off, and told to get to the top or quit. If you don’t make it, your enthusiasm disappears, and you seek ways to avoid similar challenges in the future.” (1)

Teacher education programs in colleges include classes on teaching methodology, classroom management, child development and psychology, teaching in content areas, and more. However, it is no different than teaching someone how to climb Mount Everest by using a textbook. Even student teaching experience is nothing like having your own classroom.  The usual “sink or swim” approach toward newly hired teachers by districts and schools make it difficult new teachers’ transition into teaching. Consequently, “attrition rates among new teachers often are five times higher than among experienced teachers.” (2)

According to the textbook “teacher induction programs are meant to help beginning teachers feel comfortable in their roles and help them acquire advanced instructional skills quickly.” (3) Then the textbook identifies the type of induction programs as “orientation programs, performance-improvement programs, and state mandated assistance and assessment programs, and mentorship programs.” However, Harry Wong warns against the misconceptions between mentoring an induction in his 2004 article titled “Induction Programs That Keep New Teachers Teaching and Improving.” He states that “[mentoring and induction] are not synonymous, yet they are often used incorrectly. Induction is a process—a comprehensive, coherent, and sustained professional development process—that is organized by a school district to train, support, and retain new teachers and seamlessly progresses them into a lifelong learning program. Mentoring is an action. Mentoring is not induction. It is a component of the induction process” (4)

Agenda

Upon reviewing the online resources and the textbook, below is an agenda, which is organized into three threads, for an effective teacher induction program:

Logistics:

·      School Calendar, testing schedule, employee policies, procedures, payroll, and benefits

·      Organizational structure of the school: who reports to whom for what?

·      School Culture and the team structure

·      History and people of the school

·      Expectations from the teachers

·      Available resources and how to access them

·      Emergency and safety plans and procedures

·      Goals for the school year

Instruction:

·      Curriculum

·      Classroom management, discipline policies and procedures

·      Effective instructional strategies

·      Assessment Strategies

·      How to prepare effective lesson plans

·      First day of the school

·      How to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students

Learning and Growth:

·      How to serve students with special needs and English Language Learners effectively

·      How to build relationships with student, parents, and the larger community

·      How the mentoring program works, if exists

·      How to prepare for parent teacher conferences

·      Individual professional development plan

Rationale for the above agenda for an induction program

Coming out of a teacher training program has at least some ideas and fundamental knowledge about teaching and learning. However, as they become part of a new organization, they have no idea at all about the inner works of that organization. It is unchartered water for them. Therefore, I believe teachers first need to know the school in which they will be working in order to be productive in such an environment. The first thread, logistics, provides new teachers with enough information on how to operate effectively in the school.

“Teaching presents a particular challenge as a profession because so much of its success is based on human interaction. Every school district puts its own face on that interaction, and only through some immersion into school cultures can educators grasp its overt as well as underlying dynamics and rhythms.” (5) Therefore, it is important that new teachers get acclimated in to the school culture, expectations, and team structure. Teacher induction programs need to provide new teachers with such information early on.

The second thread, instruction, includes support on how to teach effectively which is the core business of a school. As mentioned above teachers have some base knowledge coming into the job on instruction. However, effective implementation of such strategies require ongoing support as teachers will make mistakes and face failures.

Although teacher preparation programs teach prospective teachers so much, there is much more to learn on the job. Therefore, teacher induction programs need to provide news teachers with new learning experiences through which teachers will learn and grow continually. I believe teaching is a dynamic job. Daniel Pink, in his book, Drive, define those type of jobs as “heuristic,” which “there is no algorithm for it, you have to experiment with possibilities to devise a novel solution.” (6) Induction programs that offer new learning and growth opportunities for teachers would be more successful. Within the last thread, learning and growth, teachers need to learn about how the mentoring programs will work in the school, if the school has one.

References:

1-    Creating a Teacher Mentoring Program, National Foundation for the Improvement of Education. Retrieved from www.neafoundation.org

2-    Moskowitz, Jay and Stephens, Maria. (1997). From Students of Teaching to Teachers of Students: Teacher Induction Around the Pacific Rim. Washington, DC: Palavin Research Institute. Retrieved from www.eric.ed.gov

3-    J. Seyfarth, Human Resources Leadership for Effective Schools

4-    H, Wong, March 2004. Induction Programs That Keep New Teachers Teaching and Improving. NASSP Bulletin, Volume 88, No 638

5-    Teacher Induction Program, 2009-2010. Jefferson County Schools, Tennessee

6-    D. Pink, 2009. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.