Adaptive Practice and the Development of Resilient Novice Teachers

• In Event: How Novice Elementary Teachers Learn to Teach Mathematics and Reading/Language Arts in Ambitious Ways

Abstract

Objective. Drawing on an extensive set of interviews (N=155) with 68 first-year teachers (FYTs) from five different teacher preparation programs, this paper describes challenges perceived by FYTs and their responses to these challenges. Given the range of teacher preparation programs and novice teaching contexts represented by this group of FYTs, this paper has implications for district leaders and teacher preparation programs interested in supporting resilient novice teachers in positively responding to challenges associated with enacting equitable and ambitious instruction.
Perspective. Novice teachers identify classroom discipline, student motivation, individual student differences, assessing student work, and relations with parents as significant challenges (Meister & Melnick, 2003; Veenman, 1984). Positive adaptation and responses to challenges demonstrate a teacher’s resiliency (Johnson et al., 2014; Mansfield, Beltman, & Price, 2014; Tait, 2008). Teacher resiliency can improve teaching effectiveness, retention, and a teacher’s ability to adjust to changing conditions (Bobeck, 2002). Resilience is not only a personal characteristic, but also a function of the social supports, school culture, and policies under which the novice works (Johnson et al., 2014; Tait, 2008). In this study, we focus on FYTs’ reported challenges and responses to these challenges. We pay particular attention to the relationship between these responses to challenges and FYTs’ instructional practices.
Data Sources and Methods. Each of the 68 FYTs participated in one to three interviews during their first year of teaching and responded to a range of questions including: What has been challenging for you so far this year? Describe how you navigated through one of your challenges. In the first round of coding these interviews, a team of researchers identified transcript excerpts in which FYTs described “Challenges/tensions/dilemmas.” Next, we sub-coded all excerpts with this initial code using an emergent set of sub-codes for the types of challenges described, as well as the types of responses.
Findings. FYTs reported challenges related to several topics, with the most frequent being challenges related to school context, students, curricula, and lack of preparation. We identified four often-overlapping strategies that FYTs reported using to respond to these challenges: adaptive practice, seeking support from others, searching for additional resources, or planning to leave their school. Focusing in greater detail on the “adaptive practice” response, we found that novices adapted by changing their instructional practice (e.g., adapting rigor of content, instructional materials, participation structures), building stronger connections with students, and altering their interactions with other adults in the school.
We further found that novices with high levels of ambitious instruction more often adapted their practices in more strategic and inquiry-based ways, whereas novices with lower levels of ambitious instruction responded to challenges with more trial-and-error and control-oriented adaptations.
Significance. In this study, we sought to identify the strategies FYTs use to respond to challenges and the implications of those strategies for equitable and ambitious instruction. Our findings can be beneficial for both school leaders and teacher educators interested in supporting the enactment of equitable and ambitious instruction and building resilient teachers who remain in the teaching profession.

Authors

• Kim Evert, Middle Tennessee State University

• Corey Drake, Michigan State University