Problems Novice Teachers Face at Work
Novice teachers experience various problems in their daily educational practices and often are uncertain how to cope with them. This is self-evident and not unlike other professions. However, most novice employees in other professions learn more gradually from experienced colleagues, ensuring a gradual growth in their professional role. Inherent job characteristics of a teacher’s profession make this gradual growth and introduction of novice teachers to meet job requirements more problematic compared to other professional domains (Snoek & Van Rossum, 2017).
Snoek & Van Rossum (2017)
mention several job characteristics of teaching that explain these problems: novice teachers 1) often have immediate, complete and solitary responsibility for children’s wellbeing and development in their class(es); 2) are expected to support children’s complete learning and development process and consultation with their parents, which requires a high degree of proficiency; 3) are expected to deal with a wide range of complex tasks, appearing in several subjects and associated with their school’s characteristics; 4) are expected to apply an integrated set of knowledge, skills and attitudes to solve a multitude of (unpredictable and practice-based) problems at both class and school level and are often asked 5) to support several classes, as they are temporarily employed. Dealing with various classes, of various ages and levels, makes their job even more challenging.
As a result, novice teachers are often discouraged by the problems they encounter in their daily job practices. They are reported to experience high pressure, professional ‘loneliness’ and stress, and are often insecure about their performance and professional role, in both class and at school level (Snoek & van Rossum, 2017). These circumstances are sadly reflected in high drop-out numbers: between 15 to 26% of novice teachers in the Netherlands stop within 1 year with their job and choose alternative careers (Onderwijs in Cijfers, 2014). This is especially painful in an era in which The Netherlands is experiencing a teacher shortage.
The problems with novice teachers are recognized at a national level and partly remedied with special induction programs to support novice teachers (such as the guidance given at https://www.begeleidingstartendeleraren.nl/) during their first three working years. However, several problems remain. Snoek & van Rossum (2017, p.16) mention various existing competence frameworks used to guide, supervise and provide feedback to novice teachers, so they can become ‘reflective practitioners’ (Schon, 1983). However, these frameworks often offer restricted perspectives as they are limited to teachers’ observable pedagogical-didactical actions within the classroom. Nevertheless, there are ample other opportunities for feedback and reflection of teachers in and on practice (Schon, 1983), based on persistent and practical issues they experience in a broader job context. For instance, in collaborative situations with colleagues, talks with parents, and during the development of learning materials (Snoek & van Rossum, p. 17). Furthermore, underneath teachers’ visible actions are a whole range of concealed beliefs, motives and identity issues, that are highly connected with core qualities, as is illustrated by the ‘onion model’ of Korthagen (2004, 2014) and Korthagen & Nuijten (2022) in Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The ‘onion model’ (Korthagen, 2004, 2014 and Korthagen & Nuijten, 2022) – reproduced with permission of the author
Snoek & Van Rossum (2017
, p.17) state that in induction programs for novice teachers it is therefore important to pay sufficient attention to competences and activities that are both related to the primary process of teaching as well as to job aspects that are not directly observable, such as beliefs, personal identity, and core qualities.