A Comparison of Beginning and Experienced Teachers' Concerns.

Abstract

Over the past thirty years, numerous studies confirmed that new teachers do not have the requisite knowledge to understand the complex interrelationships among management, behavior, and academic tasks. An important missing piece in the literature is how the concerns of experienced teachers differ from those cited by beginning teachers. Based on previous research, this study compares beginning and experienced teachers' concerns with respect to managing classroom behavior, dealing with time constraints and work load, parent interactions, and academic preparation. This paper examines these complex relationships by comparing a national sample of beginning teachers to a national cross-section of experienced teachers to ascertain if beginning teachers' concerns diminish with experience. Significant differences were found on the Classroom Management and Parent Interaction scales while no differences were found on the Academic Preparation and Time Management scales. This study points to a number of issues important to teacher educators responsible for preparing candidates for initial certification as well as to school district personnel responsible for mentoring new teachers and strengthening professional development for in-service teachers. Theoretical Framework Three in-depth reviews of thie literature offer a comprehensive examination of preservice to inservice teacher transition over the past thirty years. Veenman (1984) analyzed eighty-three international empirical studies to identify the most serious problems of beginning teachers. A problem was defined as a difficulty that beginning teachers encounter in the performance of their work, which hinders the achievement of intended goals. Beginning teachers were defined as teachers who had not yet completed three years of teaching after receiving initial teacher certification. Veenman culled fifteen of the most serious problems and classified and rank ordered them according to tiieir importance. The eight most serious problems that new teachers reported in order of importance were as follows: classroom discipline, motivating pupils, dealing with individual differences, assessing pupils' work, relations with parents, organization of class work, insufficient materials and supplies, and dealing with problems of individual pupils. The next seven in rank order were as follows: heavy teaching load resulting in insufficient preparation time; relations with colleagues; planning of lessons and schooldays; effective use of different teaching methods; awareness of school policies and rules; determining level of students; and tied for fifteenth knowledge of subject matter, burden of clerical work, and relations with principals/administrators. Veenman' s ( 1987) continued work added several more studies to the data base, bringing the total number of studies to one hundred. The eight most serious problems remained the same, although the rank order changed stightly. Insufficient materials and supplies traded rank order witii organization of classwork in this second group of studies. Kagan (1992) examined forty learning to teach studies published or presented between 1987 and 1991. Twenty-seven of the studies dealt with preservice teachers; thirteen, with first-year or beginning teachers. All forty studies were naturalistic and qualitative in methodology. This group of studies confirmed that preservice teachers enter teacher education programs with personal beliefs about images of good teachers, images of themselves as teachers, and memories of themselves as students. These personal beliefs and images of preservice teachers remain unchanged by their teacher certification programs and follow them into classroom practica student teaching, and inservice teaching. Thus, new teachers approach the classroom with pre-conceived personal beliefs about teaching and students. This lack of change in attitudes and beliefs translates to a classroom reatity that does not meet their expectations. …

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