Defense Date

6-14-2018

Graduation Date

Fall 12-21-2018

Availability

Immediate Access

Submission Type

dissertation

Degree Name

EdD

Department

Professional Doctorate in Educational Leadership (ProDEL)

School

School of Education

Committee Chair

Darius Prier

Committee Member

Gibbs Kanyongo

Committee Member

Fran Serenka

Committee Member

Charles Machesky

Keywords

Well-trained mentors, Mentoring, New teacher induction

Abstract

“If well-trained, competent, caring teachers were present in every classroom, we would witness a staggering increase in student achievement, motivation, and character improvement along with a marked decrease in discipline problems” (Breaux & Wong, 2003, p.22). If school districts do not take the initiative to design and implement effective induction programs with embedded mentoring, they are essentially setting their teachers and students up for failure. Regardless of educator training programs, new teachers are unprepared to face the diverse and challenging needs of education today (Bartell, 2005). All individuals entering education need assistance in applying their prior knowledge and experience to the act of teaching (Bartell, 2005). Beginning teachers face many challenges within their beginning years which often times leaves them discouraged from continuing their work in the education field. Because novice teachers face many challenges without being provided additional support, they often feel discouraged and leave the profession. However, more individuals would remain in education if school districts provided new teachers with a well-designed induction/mentoring program, to support and guide them through the beginning challenges. Therefore, administrators at Silver Oak Area School District decided it would be best to design and implement an induction program with an embedding mentoring piece to provide necessary support to their novice teachers.

Although induction programs are required by the state, often times they do not provide new teachers with the support and guidance necessary to be successful or for their students to be successful. Therefore, novice teachers lack the confidence to be effective. To ensure the success of novice teachers, students, and schools, administrators must provide their beginning teachers with specific district content along with psychological and instruction-related support.

Novice teachers need opportunities to work collaboratively with a highly qualified mentor whom will provide support, guidance and teacher modeling throughout the course of their beginning years. Consequently, mentors need to be well matched based on the needs of the beginning teacher. Mentors also need continual training and made aware of the criteria and their role throughout the process to provide the highest quality of support and guidance possible. It is essential that the novice teacher understands the role of their mentor and how the guidance will be provided to him/her.

A literature review provided relevant resources to further understand the characteristics and attributes of a quality induction program with an embedded mentoring element. Developing a highly effective induction/mentoring program is an extremely challenging and complicated task that requires planning and commitment from a multitude of administrators, teachers, and beginning teachers to ensure that their district goals and needs of the teachers are being met. This action research study focused on achieving this goal. Past and current administrators at the Silver Oak Area School District completed a 20 question Likert scale survey with four open-ended questions embedded analyzing the effectiveness of the current induction program and the qualities, characteristics, and skillsets to improve a mentoring component.

Key words: attrition rates, e-learning, empirical research, mentor, novice teacher, professional development, professional learning community, standard deviation, teacher, induction, theoretical research

Abbreviations: School Performance Profile (SPP), Pennsylvania Standardized State, Assessments (PSSA), No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Professional Learning Community (PLC), Collaborative Induction, Mentoring and Support (CIMS), Beginning Educator Support and Training (BEST), Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Silver Oak Area School District (SOASD)

Language

English

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