Answering the Questions of Beginning Teachers

Research reports that despite new or beginning teachers being well received by the education profession, their first year experience is often traumatic and difficult nature. This is not a new phenomenon and is a problem shared by many new teachers nationwide and in the western world. Consequently, the retention rate for new teachers is decreasing at an alarming rate and is currently reported that 33% of beginning teachers in New South Wales do not expect to be teaching in public schools within the next 10 years. While literature about how to teach is prolific, managing the real life situation for many new teachers is often more daunting than first envisioned. To this end, new teachers in Japanese classrooms are no exception. Teaching is a challenging career as the classroom `face\u27 is constantly evolving from utilising less traditional teaching modes, to embracing newer technologies and teaching pedagogies. This paper reports on the experiences of the University of New England teacher education graduates in their first year of teaching based on their postings to an on-line support network launched by the University of New England in 2005, entitled the Professional Development Support project. Analysis of the postings revealed that these beginning teachers sought suport from the network on a number of specific topics at different times of the school year. This paper presents the nature and patterns of their inquiries and puts forward recommendations for teacher education programmes in response. Japanese teachers may gain an excellent insight into some of the difficulties their international colleagues experience, and learn from a shared, reflective teaching experience external to the classroom. This in turn, may assist in the development and understanding of how beginning teachers may better to transition into the professional classroom