Challenges New Teachers Face and Innovative Strategies to Overcome Them: Insights From K–12 Administrators

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Developing Teacher Identities Through Collaboration

Abstract

Administrators provide a unique and essential testimony to the needs and challenges of new teachers as they serve as their observers, evaluators, and employers. This phenomenological study focuses on the insights and perspectives of ten elementary, middle, and high school administrators regarding the challenges new teachers face and innovative strategies for overcoming them. Administrators identified four main areas of challenge for new teachers, including differentiation, classroom management, working with at-risk students, and effective data use. They also provided strategies to implement so new teachers are better prepared in these areas to effectively meet student needs, including creating a post-graduate support group, videotaped self-evaluations, and targeted mentoring from experienced teachers and administrators.

Authors

• Jennifer Alayne Tygret, Illinois College

• Sarah J Kaka, Ohio Wesleyan University