The Effect Of A Teacher Preparation Program On Teacher Preparedness From The Perspective Of First-Year Teachers And Their Principals

Teacher attrition, particularly among first-year teachers, has encouraged research studies at identifying concerns and recommendations for analyzing and improving college and university teacher preparation programs. The purpose of this quantitative study is to examine and analyze the preparedness of first-year teachers from a private university. More specifically, the study identifies how first-year teachers and their principals perceive their preparation to effectively teach students in the classroom. First-year teachers and their principals shared their perceptions of teacher education preparedness by taking an online survey. All data collected from the survey were self-reported. Due to a small sample size, multiple years (2010-2015) were used to analyze the data. The aim of the study is to identify perceptions of first-year teachers and their principals so specific feedback may be provided to teacher education programs. Overall, first-year teachers identified themselves as proficient, in regard to preparedness, based on their teacher education program. Furthermore, these teachers perceive themselves as proficient and adequately prepared to work with technology integration within the classroom setting. However, there is significant difference in perceptions of principals as related to first-year teacher preparedness. Overall, principals identified that the vast majority of first-year teachers demonstrated proficient to exemplary rating as related to teacher preparedness. Based on the results of the study, three endorsements are recommended. First, university teacher preparation programs should be more intentional in providing classroom management strategies to assist with managing student behavior effectively. Secondly, specific feedback from graduates should be requested from teacher preparation programs in order to provide additional data related to assessment practices used to monitor student learning. Lastly, teacher education programs would benefit from an examination of how the institution\u27s clinical experiences influence curriculum and instructional practices, and then make adjustments to courses to address these areas