Support systems which can be applied in teacher induction process

Novice teachers who have just started to teach have a lot of problems in social, personal and professional aspects and need support mechanism to help them solve those problems. The purpose of this research is to determine how a systematic and comprehensive teacher induction programme which will be able to meet novice teachers' professional, social and personal needs should be. In the research, induction programme has been analysed in four categories: peer support, mentoring, self reflection, expert input. The research has been designed by using phenomenology method which is one of the qualitative research patterns. Research datas has been collected through semi-structured interview questions. Research has been carried out with 40 novice teachers who started job in 2014-2015 education term. Content analysis method has been used in the process of analyzing research datas. Resolved research datas have been categorized as theme, sub-theme and concept. According to the findings which have been obtained from the research, it is seen that success of mentoring application, one of the teacher induction programs, mainly depends on mentors' personal and professional characteristics qualities. Empathy and communication skills are indicated among the most important personal characteristics of mentor. Being experienced in profession and being trained as a mentor are the most important professional characteristics which a mentor need to have. It has been stressed that novice teachers should be given the right to choose and change their own mentor. It is concluded that the topics which are discussed in the meetings between mentor and novice teacher should be determined according to novice teachers' needs. These meetings should be sometimes held in group and sometimes individually according to novice teachers' needs and demands. It has been cocluded that peer support system is useful in terms of novice teachers' expressing themselves easily. Novice teachers participating peer support groups will feel safe by understanding that their problems are not special to them. In the research it has been understood that organizations such as seminar and symposium can be helpful to provide beginning teachers with chances to solve their problems with the experts in their field. It is understood that novice teachers who have just started to teach can reflect their own strengths and weaknesses by recording their own lessons, creating portfolio related to their professional progress and keeping diary. Depending upon the research results, it is suggested that a teacher induction programme which will be shaped according to novice teachers' needs, rich in content and all components of which support each other should be designed and applied. To benefit from the teacher induction process, novice teachers should be given right to talk about their professional development. Key words: Novice teachers, mentoring, peer support, self reflection, expert support