A Model for Optimal Absorption of Novice Teachers

Background

Teachers dropping out of teaching has been an expanding phenomenon in recent decades. Many teachers, including a considerable number of novice teachers, tend to leave the profession at the beginning of their careers. Despite various policymakers’ efforts to provide personal mentorship for each teaching trainee, we still find many novice teachers that repeatedly describe the ‘first-year shock’ – a sense of survival and feelings of frustration, loneliness, and loss of self-confidence. It is assumed that the more a continuum perception is created between novice teachers’ training period and their absorption process in the education system, the better their chances are to succeed and persevere in teaching. Strengthening the novice teachers’ persistence in the system through absorption accompaniment programs alongside structured, consistent and intensive professional development programs will prevent dropout. 

 

Research on the absorption accompaniment of novice teachers when entering the profession is focused on several fields of knowledge, including the mentoring and support processes afforded to novice teachers and the effect of the organizational accompaniment culture on their work patterns. Studies conducted in Israel (Schatz-Oppenheimer, 2017; Schatz-Oppenheimer et al., 2014; Timor, 2017) classified novice teachers’ difficulties into the following groups: communication skills, class management and organizational skills, adaptation to the school system, teaching and pedagogical skills, annual curriculum and lesson outline planning, meeting curriculum requirements, and adapting to students’ various levels.