What New Teachers Need to Learn

Feiman-Nemser, S. (2003). What new teachers need to learn. Educational Leadership, 60 (8).

Summary: This article reports the results of the New Teacher Induction Study, which examined three well-regarded induction programs in the US. Researchers interviewed mentors, teachers, and principals to find out what exactly new teachers need to learn during the first few years of teaching that they could not have learned in their teacher education program. They discovered that teachers need to learn situationally relevant approaches to subject matter, how to pace and transition class activities, and how to teach in their particular school context, among other things. Due to the vast learning agenda, they concluded that new teachers need three to four years to achieve competence and several more to reach proficiency.

The author stresses the importance of enculturation to a new school and the influential role that colleagues can have on the development of a new teacher’s behaviors, attitudes, and values. She warns that even when a school does feature a supportive professional culture, we cannot “assume that assigned mentors have the time and the expertise to help novices improve their teacher and their students’ learning.” Thus, mentors must be well-trained and given the time and resources to support their colleagues effectively. To make mentorship more effective, the author promotes clearly defining the role of the mentor, using self-assessment tools with new teachers to identify areas where support is needed, and providing meaningful, relevant support that goes beyond mere emotional support.

Evaluation and Reflection: This was an informative article, though I thought the section in which the author reported the findings of the New Teacher Induction Study was surprisingly brief. In fact, I was surprised that there were so few answers to the focus question of the study, “What exactly do new teachers need to learn that they could not have learned before they began teacher?”

However, I did like this author’s emphasis on the need to view the first few years of teaching as a phase in learning to teach. Just because a person has completed a teacher education program does not mean that they have learned all the lessons they will need to become a good teacher, and thus school leaders must create that professional culture that will support teacher learning. I also appreciated the focus on the qualities of a good mentoring program, and I would like to take at least one of the ideas (using a self-assessment tool with new teachers) and incorporate it into my own mentorship of a new teacher. In terms of my own research, I may consider adding a question to our teacher survey about the most important lessons learned during the first years of teaching at HTH. That may guide our thinking about what types of supports are most effective during those first years.