Migrating to the Classroom: Online Support for the 2005 Beginning Teacher Alumni of UNE - Summary of Findings

Abstract

The key purposes of the EdASP were to enhance the innovation in and/or the quality of higher education by establishing a support service model for beginning teachers aimed at improving teacher retention in their first five years of service. The Project used The University of England (UNE) web-based technologies, to deliver support for beginning teachers in 2005 by providing fora for sharing professionally-based and academically-based information and for social interaction. The professional significance of the project was twofold: (1) The neophyte professional has to be assisted to adjust to specific classroom situations as part of the life-long learning continuum. Broadly this has not been done well in teaching despite reports over the last 25 years calling for various forms of support to be provided. (2) Teacher supply is currently a problem as many, especially baby boomers, are leaving teaching and there is the perennial problem of hard-to-staff schools. Beginning teachers are seen as potentially vulnerable as they cross the line into their new professional world. They bring with them social, cultural and political capital to deal with this new world. Where these are ineffective then vulnerabilities will arise and such teachers, more particularly, will need support. The method was essentially a case study using UNE alumni of 2005 who were invited to take part in primary and secondary online environments divided into discussion fora perceived to be useful to them. Discussion fora were available from the first day of first term until the end of the year. Postings by mentors and beginning teachers formed the bulk of the data though a specially prepared evaluative questionnaire was sent to all 2005 alumni. Data were mainly analysed using nVIVO and thematic analysis.