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A Study On Beginning Teacher Induction In American Elementary And Secondary Schools

Posted on:2013-01-03Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:F TanFull Text:PDF
GTID:1117330374971299Subject:Comparative Education
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Teacher is the key to the development of education. The21st century is an era of information, knowledge and globalization. All the countries of the world are exploring the approaches and methods for enhancing teachers'quality. As the appearance of life-long education, more and more people recognize that life-long learning will become a choice for life style, and it should be a continuous process through people's whole life. No doubt, teacher education, as the master of educational process, should be developed as the evolution of the world. It not only includes pre-service education and in-service training, but also contains the bridge of the two phases, namely beginning teacher induction which is a key phase in teacher professional development process. In the induction period, whether the beginning teachers successfully realize the transformation from a student of teaching to an eligible teacher or not will influence not only their professional sense and permanence, but also their professional development in the whole career in the future.The United States of America is one of the countries where the beginning teacher induction was been adopted firstly..As the publishing of "American Normal Education" by Conant in1963, it has been recognized as the beginning of teacher induction in US. From then, many states in the US have begun to implement teacher induction and make it mature gradually. Horizontally, it is well known that the appearance of American teacher induction is not by chance related to social background of the teachers and educational condition and teachers' educational theory in those years. The emergence of American teacher induction can be attributed to the following factors:beginning teacher attrition, professional development need, life-long education idea, integration of teacher education and teacher professional development stage theory and etc. Vertically, American teacher induction has experienced a tough road:from gestate, emerging development, prosperity to mature. In short, American teacher induction completed a transition from fragmented, informal, non-systemic teacher mentoring to integral, formal, systemic teacher induction. And it has become a main developing field for American teacher education.American beginning teacher induction initially aims to offer support and help to the beginning teachers, and decrease the new teacher attrition. As its fast developing, it changes to improve the student learning and promote teacher professional developments. Now, it has become an organic composition of teacher education. In addition, American beginning teacher induction is characterized by strict teacher qualification and examination systems, specific guideline, reasonable goal, detailed elements, and evaluation system orients to teacher professional development and teacher induction program. All these constitute the rich and perfect the structural system of American beginning teacher induction. They play an important role in improving the teachers'comprehensive qualities and professional development ability.By better understanding the essence of teacher induction for improving teacher qualities and promoting teacher professional development, and the education decentralization policy in the US, every state adopts various ways and detailed methods in beginning teacher induction according to their differences in educational policies and teacher trainings. For example, Mentoring Mode---enhancing the mentor's function to emphasize the interaction between mentor and beginning teacher; Intercollegiate Cooperation Mode---establishing the partnership between universities and primary and middle schools, and performing teacher induction together; Teaching Portfolio Mode---enhancing reflective practice and reflecting the experiences and achievements of beginning teachers in the inductive period; Professional Development Mode---satisfying goals of teacher professional development and focusing on the needs of beginning teacher professional development; the mode of Integrating teacher induction in to existing subject background---emphasizing discipline background and integrating the subject content and nature into teacher induction. In either case, it can be considered as a comprehensive system in teacher induction. Moreover, the purpose of all modes is to promote teacher professional growth, alleviate the possible frustration, and make them stay longer, furthermore, improve the teacher's teaching quality and students' academic achievements.The developing of American beginning teacher induction is not an easy and simple process which can be affected by many factors, such as salary, welfare, school culture, school management, teacher professional achievement and adaptability. In US, the beginning teacher induction meets the necessary prerequisites, such as suitable social circumstance, school circumstances and teacher's own terms, and etc. So the goals of American beginning teacher induction has been reached gradually and obtained some expectant results, for example, stabilized teaching staff, improved teachers' comprehensive qualities, enhanced students' academic achievements and cutting waste in education.Nowadays, American beginning teacher induction has been well developed. The access system, outside safeguard, training content, implementing form and proper assessment are attributed to its own plausible features. Importantly, the experiments done in educational policy, legislative guarantee, educational goal, guiding links and training forms can all be regarded as beneficial references for the attempts in China. However, American beginning teacher induction has been developed for many years while there are still many problems left. For example, education decentralization policy leads to the drop of culture, resource and policy; it is hard to completely realize justice in special education; it is not balanced between mentor's evaluation and guiding dual roles. The U.S. government is making every effort to make breakthrough and innovation on the basis of inheriting self-features. In future the U.S. government will continue to meet and focus on the needs of beginning teachers. It also will improve the social security system of teacher induction and set up a more systematic, scientific and complete system of teacher induction.
Keywords/Search Tags:America, Elementary and Secondary School, Beginning Teacher, Teacher Induction
PDF Full Text Request
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