What New Teachers Need to Learn

Author: Feiman-Nemser, S.
Publisher: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Publication Date: 2003, May
Journal: Educational Leadership
Journal Volume: 60(8)
Available for purchase online at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/may03/vol60/num08/abstract.aspx#What_New_Teachers_Need_to_Learn

Abstract (written by Author/Publisher)

Beginning teachers have legitimate learning needs that cannot be learned in advance or outside the contexts of teaching. The author suggests that induction programs for new teachers are most effective when they treat the first years of teaching as a phase in learning to teach and as a process of enculturation to professional norms and practices. She discusses how to create a professional culture that responds to these learning needs, provides effective mentoring, and uses standards as a basis for learning how to teach. Keeping new teachers in teaching is not the same as helping them become good teachers. A good induction program seeks not only to retain teachers but also to improve the teaching profession.

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