Analysis of Problems Faced by First Year Teachers - Essay Example

? Teaching Beginners Teaching Beginners A teaching industry practitioner, very fresh from school, usually has a tendency of entering a classroom for the first time after securing a teaching job full of expectations not only from the students but also from themselves. However, in the contemporary teaching industry, these teaching beginners do encounter a sobering experience (Dowding 2008). Moreover, the strength of their strongly held belief, considering the intrinsic efficacy and the anticipation to do extremely well, decreases tremendously. As a result, the potential of learning among the students being taught by that individual greatly reduces (Capel & Anne 2005). Almost every research conducted with an aim of increasing the knowledge base on the teaching industry concerning the teachers’ retention within the profession reports that the first three years are the most taxing and the most risky. During these three years, there is usually a great likelihood that the teaching beginner will leave the profession (Dowding 2008). The rate by which teaching beginners drop out necessitates review of the system of education especially in schools within the urban centers as well as hard-to-staff. As such, these learning institutions are regarded as the major victims as they are not only unable to retain teachers, who are fully certified, but also face an uphill task in attracting replacements. The purpose of this analysis is to access the challenges that the first year educators face and to deduce critically how mentoring of these new teachers may assist in addressing these problems in an effort towards establishing teaching and learning of indispensable quality Some of the problems that beginners in the teaching industry face include discipline in the classroom, motivation of the students, challenges arising from trying to deal with individual differences, assessing student’s work, teacher’s relationship with the student’s parents, class work organization, insufficient teaching aids and dealing with the individual student’s problems among others. However, there are three main problems, which are regularly faced by these teaching beginners. They are: classroom discipline, motivating the students and dealing with individual differences (Boydell & Bines 2009). As such, they may seem as arising due to the inadequacy of teaching experience but on a greater insight, they were present since time immemorial and as such, they are inevitable and they tend to affect even the most experienced teachers. Classroom Discipline Classroom discipline refers to training within the context of self-control and within social conduct, which is in an orderly manner and as such, it is brought about by a classroom management that is not only accepted and desired by many people but also effective in delivering a milestone. According to Capel and Anne (2005), classroom discipline is a challenge of the highest orders that beginning teachers face in their new environments (Capel & Anne 2005). As such, these teachers find themselves compromised in situations where they are required to attend or respond to spontaneous replies coming from the students. Moreover, they find it difficult to give responses to cues coming from the entire class he is teaching. However, such teachers tend to develop an attitude of sensitivity when issues concerning the behavior of the students, which they perceive as capable of disrupting their planned presentation, are brought into contention (Capel & Anne 2005). Further, classroom discipline, due to its dominance among the challenges faced by teaching beginners, can be perceived as a code word. As such, it is a codeword as it encompasses a host of diversified difficulties (Boydell & Bines 2009). Still, it is a codeword as it is a point of reference. In this regard, it can be used as an indication that the teachers who are in their first year of teaching lack some specified skills and as such, it enables the school management to establish ways in which these individuals can be assisted to overcome this kind of a challenge. If this kind of problem persists, there is a big probability that the individual will back out of the teaching profession (Heaney 2001). Motivating the students This is also a major challenge that teaching beginners are faced with in the new teaching environment. According to a research conducted by Anhorn (2000), it is the second major challenge after classroom discipline (Anhorn 2000). To understand this challenge, the definition of the term motivation, in the context of student’s motivation, must be clear. As such, motivation stands for a state of affairs that leaves the mind of a student excited, thereby receiving instructions. Such aspects as excitement, enthusiasm as well as interest are the primary objectives in learning and in regard to motivation (Anhorn 2000). Teachers, whether experienced in the field or not, need to come up with strategies to ensure that boredom subjected to students brought about by the system of education are and minimal, thereby facilitating a student’s motivation. It is natural that a student will tend to learn whatever interests him and will find it difficult learning those materials which do not entail something of interest to him (Heaney 2001). A beginner might think that due to his authority, he is able to influence the students. As such, the teacher might develop certain tendencies that the students do not appreciate. As a result, the students will develop a habit such that they disregard that teacher. They show this by acting in a strange way towards the teacher. This indeed is venom to any efforts aimed at motivating the students. Such a teacher will always find it challenging, as the students do not want to be associated with him or even rebel against him (Quinn 2004). Moreover, students have different perspectives towards what is best for them. A beginner, not knowing about this, might just assume and tend to force things onto the students. As such, this is in fact demotivating and it results to some students being favored. As a good teacher, one should try to understand what each student likes and what each dislikes before trying it out on them (Quinn 2004). Dealing with individual difference Just like motivating the students and classroom discipline, dealing with individual difference among students is an equally serious challenge faced by teaching industry beginners. In reality, there are no any particular two people or even animals can be the same. As such, they can only be similar (Wilkinson 2007). This gives rise to the notion of individual difference concept. Supposing that individual differences never really existed, the world would be free from conflicts and quarrels. On a deeper insight, indeed love could not be there either. In order to understand the individual differences better, it is necessary that an individual acquit himself with substantial knowledge concerning the physiology discipline (Heaney 2001). A classroom holds a number of students from different religions and different cultural backgrounds. This, in turn, means that individual differences are inevitable and therefore, result in the presence of friends and enemies among the students within the class. Any provocative behavior aimed towards another student might give rise to serious conflicts and may sometimes end up fatally. As such, it is the duty of a teacher to control these aspects to cause a balance within the class concerning the individual differences (Capel & Anne 2005). A beginner within the teaching industry is most likely to find it difficult to contain individual students’ differences as sometimes, they may even fall victim to the repercussions of these differences. Consequently, just like any other person in any profession, they are subjected to stress associated with teaching. Job related stress is unhealthy and tends to affect many aspects of life negatively, not only on the life of the person in question but also to the larger society. The resultant decision made by that beginner is that he better backs out of the profession rather than remain in a stressful teaching environment (Wilkinson 2007). In order to address these challenges and assist the teaching industry beginners to build quality learning as well as teaching, certain measures need to be put into place. There are several measures, but the most efficient among them is teacher mentoring. Teacher Mentoring as a Way to Address Challenges Faced by Beginners in the Teaching Career Many institutions are usually aware of the challenges facing new career entrants and therefore, come up with mentoring as a strategy. Mentoring strategy is designed not only to serve various contexts but also targets and functionalities. In most institutions, it is intended to acculturate and induct fresh and young trainees. In addition, it is used in development of the potential in leadership among the junior executives (Capel & Anne 2005). In the teaching industry, teacher mentoring is essential for articulating the teaching beginners as well as teaching novices. In this case, a new entrant in the teaching industry is inducted and socialized within the ways in which things are done in a particular education center. As such, the newcomer comes to learn about the ropes, how the dos and the don’ts are internalized, identify and recognize what and who matters most as well as indentifying behaviors that are rewarding. Mentoring is highly regarded not only to the teaching industry but also to all professions as a whole (Quinn 2004). It is an ideal and effective mechanism by which the teaching profession, as a whole, can be advanced. Kenneth Wilson, a physicist indeed noted that the mechanism assist tremendously in raising the standards of each and every teacher, regardless of the underlying experience,thereby building a district. Mentoring of teaching beginners is important as it assists them to build cohesion and as such, these individuals are largely encouraged to participate in meetings that involve both the teachers as well as the administrators. Through these discussions, issues concerning the instructional practice as well as those concerning the learning of the students are discussed. Moreover, teacher mentoring tends to impart a perception in the teaching beginner that the teaching challenges not only help building on the expertise but also expands and improves the prowess of teaching (Jones 2002). Consequently, this enables him to be innovative and as a result, the students become successful in learning. In order to achieve a repertoire of skills, that is expansive in nature in the teaching profession; the teaching beginner ought to maintain a consistent growth within the industry by ensuring that they learn not only from others but also learning with them. According to Professor Wilson, the payoffs associated with mentoring at the first instance are not forthcoming but due to a continued mentoring, they accumulate as time goes by. As such, especially after introducing the mentoring program, that is, in the start up phase, only modest gains become observable. However, these modest gains turn out in large quantities as years pass by (Capel & Anne 2005). Mentoring programs will continue to be initiated for teaching industry beginners to cope with challenges during the first three years and as such, new generations will see introduction of new ways of mentoring and thereby going atop of Everest will be nothing but a routine. Therefore, where the most difficult educational as well as teaching challenges prevail, mentoring program should be adjusted to suit the challenge at stake (Jones 2002). From this analysis, it is clear that beginners in the teaching career face serious challenges during the first to three years. The most serious problems faced are classroom discipline, motivating the students as well as dealing with individual difference. These individuals lack experience and therefore, faced with these challenges, they can decide to walk out of the profession. In dealing with these challenges, many educational institutions initiate several measures but the most dominant among them is mentoring program. The program is very effective in building courage and confidence to overcome these problems. The program is effective as not only does it improves the beginner but also leads to an improved quality of teaching and learning as well. References Anhorn, R. (2000) ‘The profession that eats its young’ The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin. vol.5, no. 2, pp 50-59 Boydell, D. & Bines, E. (2009) ‘Managing support for newly qualified teachers in primary Schools’ Mentoring and Tutoring, vol.3 no.1 pp 57-61. Capel, S.A. & Anne, S. (2005) Learning to Teach in the Secondary School: a Companion to School Experience. London, UK: Taylor & Francis. Dowding, G. (2008) ‘Beyond survival: supporting beginning teachers through effective Induction.’ The Practising Administrator, vol.20, no.2, pp18-20. Heaney, S. (2001) ‘Experience of induction in one local education authority’ Mentoring and Tutoring, vol. 9 no. 3, pp242-254. Jones, M. (2002) ‘Qualified to become good teachers: a case study of ten newly qualified teachers during their year of induction’ Journal of Inservice Education, vol. 28, no.3, pp 509-526. Quinn, L. F. (2004) ‘The importance of structure in providing uniform quality in mentoring/induction programs’ Mentoring and Tutoring, vol.2 no.1, pp 5-11. Wilkinson, G. A. (2007) ‘Beginning teachers identify gaps in their induction programs’ Journal of Staff Development Spring, vol.18 no.2, pp 48-51. Read More