I collected data using a survey that I sent out on the teacher's FB page. Up to today, 9 April, I had 62 responses from a variety of teachers, however, most were NZ trained.
My goal was to collect Teachers' Voice of newly appointed teachers across the country.
With collecting the data on when teachers started teaching in NZ, I was hoping to get data around if this feeling of being overwhelmed affects a specific age group of teachers, or whether it is something all new teachers experience.
Of the 62 teachers participating in the survey, 56 started between the years 2019 to 2022. 6 teachers started between 1997 to 2018.
On the question What is the hardest thing about being a new teacher in an NZ school, I had a variety of answers. Most of them indicated how hard it was to get used to the workload, understand the curriculum, planning and assessment. How to cope and plan for a digital class, learning new systems and lack of support. There were a couple that referred to how what they learned at university did not prepare them for the teaching profession. And finally, teachers struggle to get work-life balance due to all the new things that they have to learn.
It was interesting to see what they felt they needed more help with. I thought that understanding the curriculum would be the hardest thing, but then I realised it might the case for overseas trained teachers, but not necessarily for teachers that are used to the curriculum from experiencing it as a child and working with it at uni.
The 4 highest areas where they felt they needed more support were:
Planning, Assessment, Finding Resources and Grouping Students.
The question where I felt the most empathy was: How would you describe how you felt about all the new learning when you started as a new teacher at your school?
Of the 62 participants, 32 felt overwhelmed. Some felt frustrated, disheartened, lost and that everything was tiring. 7 still felt excited and fantastic.
When I How do you think student achievement was impacted in the time period when you were getting your head around the curriculum, assessment, planning, etc, most answers were a bit vague. I got the sense that teachers don't want to acknowledge that their lack of understanding might have had a negative impact on their students. Answers varied from heavily impacted to not impacted at all.
And in my last question, do you have ideas for how a school could support the orientation and induction of new teachers more efficiently and effectively, there were a few great suggestions and the following caught my eye:
Returning teachers could have a minor pct for a year... Eg like once per month you get a chance to go watch others or have an obs taken of them
Take them through the assessment process and ensure they have access to all the information they need.
Have a structured BT program (e.g., who provides what support, requirements, same expectations of each BT/consistency), and provide all school procedures and protocols. Be open, supportive and receptive to questions, feedback and concerns from staff to management.
Supporting more with assessments and understanding the curriculum
yes, structured induction would be really good
Have PDs on school-specific programs, sites, timelines and expectations BEFORE the start!
If one could get something to read before you actually start your first day at school whether it's online or hard copy, will make you feel more at ease and will also help you to ask the right questions when you do not understand how things work at the said new school.
Was my survey useful, yes definitely, did I get all the correct data? No, unfortunately, I forgot to let the teacher's email addresses be visible, so I couldn't determine whether they were in a Manaiakalaanie school or not.
Moving forward, I will get in touch with the Manaiakalaani MIT teachers, and create a focus group with whom I will bounce my ideas.
