Traditionally, the humanist narrative of "novice versus veteran teacher" serves as an efficient way to understand and produce an experienced workforce in the current neoliberal educational climate. This standard approach to workforce development has hit science teachers especially hard as they work within a culture of crisis for ensuring…

Teacher induction is defined as the transition from student to professional and involves the greatest need for supervision and support. Induction programs providing mentorship, curricular information, classroom support, and professional scaffolding have grown out of concerns related to accountability and attrition during the first years of…

Teachers--who are generally representatives of the cultural mainstream--are expected to use global experiences to become culturally enhanced and to bring these enhancements back to their classrooms. In this article, the authors discuss a cross-cultural exploration of investigations into the experiences of Canadian and U.S. educators with…

What happens when a district teacher assumes the role of university student? What happens when two instructors from two different institutions are at the helm of a single graduate-level university course? The duality of these situations is recognized in the notion of what the authors termed "instructional synergy", drawing upon synergy as both…

Focus groups with beginning teachers examined their perceptions of their own development as reflective practitioners while participating in the California Formative Assessment and Support System for Teachers (CFASST). While teachers often expressed their proclivity to be reflective educators, CFASST's systematic structure and support allowed them…

Examines implementation of the California Formative Assessment and Support System for Teachers (CFASST) within local California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) programs using data from six case studies and highlighting how local BTSA program directors thought about and acted to implement CFASST. The study illustrated the essential…

Examines how experienced teachers are trained to act as support providers, understandings they glean from the training, and their interpretation and presentation of these understandings during interactions with beginning teachers. The paper explains that the link between support providers and beginning teachers is the core of the induction…

Learning to teach is a developmental process. This process begins in some fashion when a person enters formal schooling and ideally continues throughout life, with good teachers always becoming better teachers. Teaching is perhaps the only career in which people have such an extended term of development. Unfortunately, nearly all of this growth in…

Surveyed beginning teaches, support providers, site administrators, and program staff in local California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment programs regarding their perceptions of the effectiveness of various program elements in fostering reflective teaching, examining policy intents, program goals, and teachers' understandings of their…

Despite good intentions and extensive planning by teacher education and/or induction programs, novice teachers frequently cite the first years as unsupported and lonely. Feelings of isolation and being overwhelmed help contribute to the large numbers of teachers leaving the profession. In fact, nearly 50 percent of all teachers will quit within…

Senate Bill (SB) 2042, authored by Senator Marion Bergeson, was passed to establish a new system for providing teacher preparation within the state of California. The credentialing reforms introduced in SB 2042 follow a tradition described by Irving Hendrik and stake their own claims regarding the locus of control over teacher quality, the role of…

Examines collaborative teacher induction programs involving higher education institutions and local education agencies, focusing on the California experience. Four themes include the importance of multiple support or a triad model of support, unique opportunities offered by Professional Development Schools, the role of teacher educators in…

In 1992, the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) grant program was established to provide funded opportunities for first and second-year teachers having completed a preliminary or professional clear multiple/single subject, credential. Matriculating from a teacher preparation program to the classroom, they were ready to "expand,…

Introduces a theme issue on reflective practice in California's Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment program. Papers highlight: state policy mandating teacher reflection; the California Formative Assessment and Support System for Teachers; teacher skills and beliefs for promoting reflective practice in novice teachers; beginning teachers'…

In the last decade, the education and policy communities in California have undertaken a major effort to reform the preparation of public school teachers. At the heart of this work is quality education for all children and high-quality teacher education. With the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 2042 in 1998, the state has set in motion the building of…