Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Committee Chair

David Shellman

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a new teacher induction program as implemented in a rural school district in central North Carolina. All beginning teachers with 3 or less years of experience, all school-based administrators, and all mentoring teachers were the target participants. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and report the data collected.

This study involved descriptive statistics applied to surveys sent to the three participating groups. Also, descriptive statistics were used to analyze more in-depth data collected through face-to-face interviews with participating individuals from the three groups. The survey was conducted online, and notes from the interviews were transcribed and analyzed. This study involved both quantitative and qualitative research/data.

The researcher organized the findings and the reported the data by research question. Data were categorized into themes that emerged through the analysis of survey data as well as text analysis applied to interview results. The qualitative data on the needs of new teachers yielded the following themes: (1) clarification of expectations, (2) additional resources to support instruction, (3) classroom management, (4) organization and time management, and (5) lesson planning and assessment. However, the Likert-scale questions on the survey demonstrated that new teachers struggle with differentiation of instruction for students who master content quickly and differentiation for students who struggle with new concepts.

Recommendations for future research are included based on analysis of data collected through this study. Both qualitative and quantitative data analyzed in this study reveal a discrepancy between the perceptions of beginning teachers, mentoring teachers, and administrators as related to the needs of beginning teachers.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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