Working Paper No. 514 November 2015
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Working Paper No. 514 November 2015 Review of the Droichead Teacher Induction Pilot Programme Joanne Banks1, Paul Conway3, Merike Darmody1, Aisling Leavy2, 1 1 Emer Smyth, Dorothy Watson Abstract: The Droichead pilot programme is designed to provide whole-school support for teacher induction. The programme is innovative in being led at school level, by a Professional Support Team (PST) consisting of the principal, mentor(s) and other member(s). This working paper presents preliminary findings from a large-scale study of the programme, placing them in the context of previous international and national research on teacher induction. Keyword(s): Education; Teacher Induction *Corresponding Author: [email protected] 1 Economic and Social Research Institute, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin, Ireland 2 Mary Immaculate College 3 University of Limerick Acknowledgements: This working paper reports preliminary findings from a large-scale study of the Droichead pilot programme being funded by the Teaching Council. ESRI working papers are not ESRI reports. They represent un-refereed work-in-progress by researchers who are solely responsible for the content and any views expressed therein. Any comments on these papers will be welcome and should be sent to the author(s) by email. Papers may be downloaded for personal use only. Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 6 1.1 Induction, teaching quality and learning to teach .................................................................................... 6 1.1.1 Teaching quality as a policy focus ....................................................................................................................... 6 1.1.2 Appeal of induction in promoting teaching quality............................................................................................. 7 1.2 What is induction? Phase, process or integrated programme .................................................................. 9 1.2.1 Induction as a distinct phase ............................................................................................................................ 11 1.2.2 Induction: a socialisation process ..................................................................................................................... 11 1.2.3 Induction: An integrated programme for beginning teacher learning .............................................................. 12 1.3 Induction programme waves: Droichead in an international context .................................................... 14 1.3.1 Induction waves in Ireland and the Droichead pilot ......................................................................................... 19 1.3.2 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 23 1.4 School organisational culture and teacher effectiveness ....................................................................... 23 1.4.1 Previous research: What is organisational culture? .......................................................................................... 24 1.4.2 To what extent do organisational culture and climate differ? .......................................................................... 25 1.4.3 Leadership practices and organisational culture............................................................................................... 26 1.4.4 Teachers’ experiences ...................................................................................................................................... 26 1.4.5 Early career teachers ........................................................................................................................................ 27 1.5 Support for novice teachers ................................................................................................................... 28 1.5.1 Climate, school culture and teacher induction ................................................................................................. 30 1.5.2 Assessment and assistance: embracing contraries or judge-mentoring? ......................................................... 32 1.6 Convergence on best practice principles for teacher induction .............................................................. 34 1.6.1 Early research 1990s: Components of induction .............................................................................................. 34 1.6.2 Recent reviews 2000s+: Induction programme intensity .................................................................................. 35 1.6.3 Intensity and Interactions matter ..................................................................................................................... 37 1.7 Conclusion: Designing and evaluating induction programmes ............................................................... 38 1.7.1 Rationale for induction ..................................................................................................................................... 39 1.7.2 Framing of induction matters ........................................................................................................................... 39 1.7.3 School culture/ context matters ....................................................................................................................... 40 1.7.4 The impact of induction .................................................................................................................................... 40 1.7.5 Scalability of induction programmes ................................................................................................................ 40 CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................................................... 42 2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 42 2.2 Previous studies which evaluated teacher induction ................................................................................ 42 2.2.1 Responsibility for evaluation of induction programmes: A brief snapshot of the United States .......................... 42 2.2.2 Shortcomings and challenges of evaluation ........................................................................................................ 43 2.2.3 The focus of evaluations: who and what gets evaluated? ................................................................................... 43 2.2.3.1 Programme satisfaction data............................................................................................................................ 44 2.2.3.2 Teacher retention and job satisfaction data ..................................................................................................... 45 2.2.3.3 Teacher and student learning data ................................................................................................................... 47 2.2.3.4 luating programmes using quality indicators and exploring other school factors ............................................. 47 2.2.4 Survey instruments for evaluating teacher induction programmes ..................................................................... 48 2.2.4.1 The TELL survey ................................................................................................................................................ 48 2.2.4.2 SASS (Schools and Staffing Survey) ................................................................................................................... 50 2.2.4.3 The Teacher Follow up Study (TFS) ................................................................................................................... 52 2.2.4.4 BTLS (The Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey) .......................................................................................... 52 2.2.4.5 Surveying New Teachers’ Experiences in Schools ............................................................................................. 53 2.3 Study methodology ................................................................................................................................... 53 2.3.1 Survey design ...................................................................................................................................................... 54 2.3.2 Case-studies of schools ........................................................................................................................................ 57 CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................................................... 58 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 58 3.2 Initial teacher education and teacher preparedness .............................................................................. 58 3.3 Teacher induction pre-Droichead ........................................................................................................... 60 3.4 Formation of the Professional Support Team ......................................................................................... 62 3.5 The mentoring