The impact of an induction program on novice teachers' efficacy beliefs

The first year of teaching experience is overwhelming and stressful for all beginning teachers regardless of the teacher education program they attend, and that over the course of the year they usually experience a decreased strength of belief in their own efficacy and in the learning potential of their students. Therefore, the first year of teaching experience is a crucial period of learning and professional development. It is apparent that there is a considerable need for beginning teacher support programs in order to prepare competent and successful teachers in the field. This qualitative study described the development and implementation of a support program for novice teachers in Turkish primary schools for the 2001-2002 school year. The study involved four beginning teachers with no teaching experience. The first phase of the study included seeking beginning teacher problems in public primary schools in Turkey. The second phase of the study included development and the delivery of the support program around participant teachers' needs. The four sources of efficacy beliefs (i.e. mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological and emotional states) were used as a theoretical framework for the support program (NTEP-Novice Teacher Efficacy Program). Methodology included a combination of reflection sheets collected prior to the program and after each session of the program, interviews conducted at the end of the NTEP, and Repertory Grids administered both at the beginning and end of the NTEP. The data gathered through these sources were used to evaluate the program and toinvestigate changes taking place in beginning teachers' perception of an effective teacher and their assessment of "self as teacher at the end of a support program. The findings suggested that there are several key program essentials for providing support for the beginning teachers. The program essentials include: (1) determining beginner teacher needs; (2) identifying benefits to program participants; (3) encouraging collaborative work among participants; (4) creating a non-threatening atmosphere; (5) encouraging participants to reflect on their own experiences and learning; (6) providing beginning teachers with specific and constructive feedback; (7) creating opportunities for beginning teachers to compare and contrast their own teaching practices and beliefs to other teachers; (8) viewing beginning teachers as professionals and incorporating their ideas into the content of the program; (9) instead of loading content knowledge as a recipe, equipping beginning teachers to work on their own problems in their own teaching; (10) establishing the norm of on-going professional development; (1 1) conducting the program in a place which is not associated with participant teachers' teaching context The findings also indicated that the participant teachers felt supported and appreciated in their first year of teaching experience. Considering participants' constructs of an effective teacher, we observed a considerable change both in structure and content at the end of the NTEP. As regards their efficacy beliefs, we observed that the participant teachers reconsidered their efficacy beliefs on the skills and activities, which they ascribe to an effective teacher. That is, while some participant teachers viewed themselves more similar to their perception of an effective teacher, some became uncertain on some features of an effective teacher. KEYWORDS Novice teacher (Beginning Teacher) Induction Program (Beginning Teacher Support Program) Self-Efficacy Theory Teacher Efficacy Repertory Grids