Being a new teacher in NZ secondary schools

1. Being a new teacher in NZ secondary schools “Making a difference” Team: Glenda Anthony, Ruth Kane, Beverley Bell, Ronnie Davey, Sylvie Fontaine, Mavis Haigh, Susan Lovett, Ruth Mansell, Kate Ord, Brian Prestidge, Susan Sandretto, Cheryl Stephens The research was supported by the TLRI fund.

2. The Making a Difference Study • Mixed method national study • Questionnaire to graduating teachers (n = 855) • Sample of 100 secondary school teachers interviewed at 6, 12, and 18 months. • Mentor on-line surveys at end of Year 1 (n=43)and Year 2 (n=44) • Decision to choose teaching, sense of preparedness, experiences of their induction support and guidance, and teacher learning.

3. Does induction really make a difference? • Despite nationally mandated support for new teachers there existed considerable variability in the implemented and received induction programme both within and between schools • In each school the enacted induction programme operated as a complex system - access, focus, quality

4. Satisfaction with their induction programme

5. When induction works very well Structural, contextual and personal factors contributed to successful induction experiences with considerable evidence of teacher learning PRTs who reported successful experiences • Were in a school with other PRTs, who supported them • Saw themselves as being part of an active community of learners, as pro-active, aware of registration requirements • Reported strong leadership from principals and other administrative leaders, were actively observed • Had realistic expectations of teaching and its workload, student differentiation and management • Actively sought professional development activities

6. When induction works very well II PRTs who report successful induction experiences • Viewed their induction as multi-faceted and positive • Were committed to ongoing learning • Were confident that their teaching had improved • Reported that they had progressed in their understanding of how students’ learn • Felt able to monitor their own performance • Felt confident of resolving emerging problems • Felt able to ask for support from a number of directions • Reported facing assessment challenges, but were ready to tackle them

7. When induction doesn’t work Structural, contextual and personal factors contributed to unsuccessful induction experiences with little evidence of teacher learning PRTs who reported unsuccessful induction experiences • Felt isolated, alone and unsupported • Perceived that mentoring added to their problems instead of alleviating them • Felt guilty about asking for help • Reported a lack of structure to the program • Rarely observed others teach • Displayed a lack of knowledge about registration • Appeared unaware of external opportunities for professional development

8. When induction doesn’t work II PRTs who reported unsuccessful induction experiences • Believed that the reasons students do poorly is that they don’t try hard enough • Struggled to negotiate assessments standards – inadequate or non-existent exemplars • Reported lack of appropriate resources – spent much of their ‘non-contact’ time’ making these • Lacked strategies for responding to diversity in their classrooms – struggled with ways of assessing their students’ prior knowledge • Reported that their students were disinterested and lacked motivation

9. Being part of community of learners • The learning opportunities afforded the beginning teachers are dependent on the established learning community within the school and the agency and (preparedness) of the beginning teachers themselves.

10. Where does the mentor fit into the induction process? • What are the expectations – of beginning teachers, of senior management, of colleagues, of the tutors/mentors? How are the following negotiated? • Relationship • Time commitment • Support • Guidance • Roles • Outcomes/goals

11. At 6 months beginning teacher sought help on: • Classroom management • Subject and curriculum focus • Administration strategies / report writing • Reality of teachers’ life + role of senior teachers • School organisation / systems • Working with diversity • Working with Maori / Pasifika students • Planning and resource development • Assessment • Relevance and application of theory • Practical ICT

12. What did beginning teachers expect? • I expected there to be more support. In terms of behaviour particularly I think I expected that if something went wrong you could call on someone to help you. And if someone was to do something stupid it wouldn’t be so hard to find someone in the moment of need, when that’s actually quite a hard thing to do. And sometimes it can be 2 or 3 days before you can find somebody who has got the time to deal with something. (T10#1)

13. What did teachers expect? II • In my first year, the associate that I got was very helpful in pointing me…was basically “this is how I operate”, I don’t want to be patted on the back continually that is no good to me. I need you guys telling me what I am doing wrong so I can fix it, so he was quite good in suggesting and he would give me concrete things and pointing me in other directions that I could do the same thing [as I observed] which I found very useful. (T706#3)

14. Changing expectations/reflections • I did have one on one mentor right at the start so in the first three or four weeks and I found that very helpful but I think it has a limit because you are moving on and you’re progressing and they have got other things to do as well and I think one on one becomes…it was good to start with but I like the in-the-group situation more.(T181#1) • Probably I think I would have liked a more active mentor… Because I find that everyone is very restricted by the amount of free time that they have. So everyone is under pressure, that is just what it’s like and so every second is precious. So you do feel that when you do track somebody down you are taking them away from something else. (T828#3)

15. Living up to expectations • I’m enjoying it and it certainly is challenging. At N School, like behaviour management is a big thing to get your head around and it’s always changing but there’s been lots of support for me which has been really good and I’ve found that really helpful. • Yeah definitely and I wouldn’t have survived last year [year 1]if I didn’t have some people to have a moan to or work some thing out with.(T83#3)

16. What activities did beginning teacher report that mentors were involved in • Meetings, classroom observations, shared workplace interactions. What was the focus of meetings • Marking, assessment, what I’m going to do next, what trips are coming up and what I need to do for them. Sometimes we skip it if nothing is happening. Any general problems I’m having we will talk through it. (T296#1)

17. Formal vs Informal • The [meetings] helped quite a lot really because they are not particularly structured. If there is nothing else going on we’ll go through each of my classes and talk about how they are going. But that is an opportunity to bring up any issues that I have been having during the week or ask questions. Some of them are quite a practical nature, do you have any good resources for this topic? (T191#1) • One could be a good mentor and a good student without endless paper work; I think just making you write more and more things out all the time doesn’t seem to be as effective as demonstrating, showing talking and just reflecting afterwards about things in a friendly sort of way. So they are going a bit over structured too many boxes to fill in and you are not learning from the boxes you are learning from the advice and support. (T827#3)

18. Scheduled versus needs basis? • I think we’re meant to meet like every Friday but then only every second Friday it’s been happening. She just says “have we got any problems?” And I say “not really”. We don’t have any formal meetings or anything like that and no agenda or anything. (T190#1) • Yes they have been. With one of them, with the HOD of English it was at my instigation that we have regular meetings. So I had to push for that and they weren’t always stuck to. (T291#1)

19. What did the mentors report doing in Y1? • classroom observations • sharing of units of work, resources, curriculum & planning documents • support with assessment procedures • classroom/student management concerns • parent/teacher interviews and report writing • offering of professional readings • issuing invitations to team teach • encouragement to participate in extra-curricula activities • tips for managing systems and paperwork.

20. Mentoring Arrangements in Year 1 • Regular one-on-one meetings in Year 1 • Usually it’s looking at what is coming up. Sometimes it might be looking at marking some assessments or going through a bit more detail on the assessments. But usually I usually make a list of things that I want to discuss and it’s usually talking about just clarifying for me what I’m teaching up ahead. (T291#1) • Not so regular meetings • More of a needs basis, we did have a regular time set up then my netball started and so that took over that particular one and she couldn’t meet any other day. I will just find her or put a note in her pigeon hole saying can we catch up, and then get together. (T296#1) • Informal chats • On-call assistance (email system) • Appraisals related to portfolios and observations schedule requirements

21. What did the mentors report doing in Y2? • Collegial support—in areas of planning, curriculum sharing, and general trouble-shooting. • Teaching/lesson observations (video?) • Increased evidence of sharing of practices such as planning, accessing/developing resources, and assessment.

22. Mentoring Arrangements in Year 2 • Reported that Year 2 teachers developed a greater network of support within the school rather than reliance on ‘them’ to solve their problems. • Experiences within a range of classrooms provided a more solid base to reflect and engage in discussions. • As a second year teacher, X brings a lot more ‘to the table’ than she did as a first year teacher. She is surer of her own opinions than previously, without having become arrogant or obstinate. This means that there is much more of an exchange going on than previously. Last year I felt more like a giver, but now both giver and receiver. (M24 S#2) • For some mentors this meant less formal contact in the second year and a move to more informal discussions. • Focus changed from management to different teaching strategies.

23. Roles of Mentors • Problem Solver • The mentor [is the best form of support] I think because I can just sit down and go through my problems with him. (T345#1)

24. Changing Roles of Mentors? • This is the first unit where I am doing it alone where I’m trying to make it my own because I’ve gone with what my mentor has done previously, which has worked well but now I am quite confident so I want to do my own unit. But am I doing it right. (T296#1) • Last year I met with my mentor teacher once a week and went over a few things and most of the time it was ‘how are you going’, yeah I’m alright. And this year we don’t need it often but if I wanted to have a talk he would and he does just pop in and say how are you going, are you alright ,and all that kind of thing, which is good. (T94#3)

25. When mentoring goes wrong! • Formal versus informal • Schedule versus needs basis • Unclear expectations • It would have been good to have things in place like go and see three teachers this term and then you can tick it off but I felt like I needed like my mentor to say ‘this is our induction process you needed to be doing this each term”. (T94#3) • Difficulty forming positive relationships • Curse of competence

26. When mentoring goes wrong • Difficulty forming positive relationships • I have one teacher who is supposedly my supervising teacher, …She tells me what I’m doing wrong and I feel really bad. We’re meant to meet once a week, it doesn’t always happen. The difficult thing because she’s in charge of one of the courses that I teach we spend most of our time on that course, and that’s the course where I feel the least supported, funnily enough because there’s no one else that I can ask for help. …I feel that she resents the fact that she has to give me such specific things. (T303#1)

27. When mentoring goes wrong II • Mentors working in areas they are not expert in. • So we started doing classroom observations and I ended up teaching her how to do classroom observations, and that was great for a while then it petered off, as she said things like ‘that’s great’ which wasn’t useful. I think probably another aspect is that a lot of other people don’t have a clue what I am doing in [my area - computing] and don’t entirely understand the environment. (T848#2) • Mentor under pressure/stress. • Uncertainty about who is the mentor! • But S is the one who is allocated as such, but I don’t know if she’s actually my mentor or not. (T151#1) • I think its still X but X was unaware that he was my mentor last year so.(T849#3)

28. Mismatch in styles?? • I think the best people to learn from are people who have a similar teaching style because you can go and see what they do and it transfers instantly. It is no good for me to go and see, for example our SCT- he’s fantastic but he is so vain and out there - he jumps around, action hands on head clapping, singing a song kind of stuff and that is not me at all I am a control freak and it has to be neat and tidy, it has got to be structured. But my mentor last year was exactly like me and she said to me lots of times that she came and observed me and she was like “oh my god you are like me that’s exactly what I would have said to that kid when they talked”. (T790#3) • What I have been finding with this associate - which is of no use to me - is that for me to have a good observation by him is to take on his style… so I have been finding assessment by him to be just a complete waste of time. (T706#3)

29. Reported challenges for mentors • Lack of ‘time’ • How much and how best to provide on-going support • How to provide support that is responsive to individual needs: • Working to a programme but able to adapt according to teacher’s needs, sometimes at the drop of a hat. (M184S#1) • Frustrations when teachers appeared unwilling to accept advice • …have come into teaching with a specific personal agenda. …think that they know it all. • Unrealistic expectations of Management with regards to support and clarity of induction programme.

30. Mentors want professional development • Half of the mentors acknowledged that they would benefit from professional development on mentoring. • They would like “time to discuss strategies with other mentor teachers to determine the most effective strategies and identify the areas of greatest need of the beginning teacher” (M182S#1).