CTP Publications Related to this Study:

District Policy and Beginning Teachers: Where the Twain Shall Meet

Curriculum Materials: Scaffolds for New Teacher Learning?

CTP STUDY DESCRIPTION

Study of Transitions into Teaching

Principal Investigators:

Pamela Grossman, Stanford University
Sheila Valencia, University of Washington

Overview:

This study investigated the ways in which the policy environment affects subject-specific teacher learning at the beginning of teachers' careers. Using individual case studies of five elementary and five secondary language arts teachers through the last year of teacher preparation and into the first three years of full-time teaching, the researchers analyzed explicit and implicit policies to determine how those policies influence teachers' thinking and practice in language arts.

This project for CTP, an offshoot of research supported by the national research Center on English Learning & Achievement (CELA), traced the ways the policy environment affects subject-specific teacher learning in the first years of their teaching careers. The study focused particularly on how policies support teachers' opportunities for learning in the first years of their careers and also on how policies regarding the subject matter (in this case, language arts) shape teachers' classroom practice.

Main Research Questions:

1. How do stated and implied policies and practices in the teacher education program contribute to teachers' conceptual and pedagogical understanding of their subject matter and teaching in general?
2. How do the stated and implied policies and practices (e.g., mentoring, professional development, class assignment, school culture) of various schools and school districts facilitate or hinder teachers' transition from preservice to professional teaching?
3. How do different school contexts influence teachers' reconceptualization of concepts and pedagogy acquired during their teacher education program?
4. What beliefs about teaching and learning are reflected in schools' and school districts' policies and practices directed at beginning teaching?

Method:

Case study research

Status:

Research Completed

Publications to Date:

CTP Research Report: Curriculum Materials: Scaffolds for New Teacher Learning?, by Pamela Grossman and Clarissa Thompson, January 2004.

CTP Research Report: District Policy and Beginning Teachers: Where the Twain Shall Meet, by Pamela Grossman, Sheila Valencia, and Clarissa Thompson, June 2001.

Journal Article: Grossman, P., Thompson, C., & Valencia, S.W. (2002). District policy and beginning teachers. ERS Spectrum: Journal of School Research and Information, 20,12-22.