Learning to Teach: A Literature Review of Induction Theory and Practice

by Marie Cameron

© New Zealand Teachers Council, 2007

Opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily coincide with those of the New Zealand Teachers Council.

Table of contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
   The context for the induction of Provisionally Registered Teachers in New Zealand
      School sector
      Early childhood sector
      Kaupapa Māori sector
   Literature review questions
2. Methodology
3. Question 1: Features of effective advice and guidance programmes
   Induction and mentoring: what are they?
   What does "effective" mean in the context of induction?
   How do the Teachers Council and other documentation describe effective advice and guidance programmes?
   What are the characteristics of effective induction and mentoring programmes?
      Effective mentoring programmes
      Effective induction programmes
   International literature on induction in early childhood settings
   International literature on induction in indigenous settings
   Summative and formative assessment processes used in induction programmes and teacher registration
      Connecticut's Beginning Teacher Educator Support and Training (BEST) programme
      California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) programme
      The Beginning Teacher Induction Program (BTIP) in New Brunswick and the newly introduced New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP) in Ontario
      Teacher Induction Scheme, Scotland
      Induction and assessment programmes in Victoria, Australia
   The New Zealand context
   Implications for assessment for full registration of Provisionally Registered Teachers
   Summary
4. Question 2: Requirements for mentoring teachers
   Implications for mentors of Provisionally Registered Teachers
5. Question 3: Existing New Zealand practices
   Studies by the Ministry of Education, Teacher Registration Board, Teachers Council and the Education Review Office
   Independent research
      Research on early childhood beginning teachers in New Zealand
      Research on primary beginning teachers in New Zealand
      Research on teachers in kura kaupapa Māori
      Research on secondary beginning teachers in New Zealand
      Research on both primary and secondary beginning teachers in New Zealand
      Research in progress on the induction of Provisionally Registered Teachers in New Zealand
   Implications of New Zealand research on induction
6. Summary and conclusions
   Summary
      The purposes of induction programmes
      Characteristics of effective induction programmes
      Characteristics of effective mentors
      Assessment of beginning teachers
      Research on induction of Provisionally Registered Teachers in New Zealand
   Conclusions
      The purposes of induction programmes
      Characteristics of effective induction programmes
      Characteristics of effective mentors
      Assessment of beginning teachers
      Research on induction of Provisionally Registered Teachers in New Zealand
7. References
Appendix A: What do the New Zealand Teachers Council and other stakeholders say about features of effective advice and guidance programmes?
Appendix B: Information for tutor teachers about provisionally registered teachers

Preface

In New Zealand a newly qualified teacher undergoes a period of advice and guidance before becoming eligible to become a fully registered teacher. In this period, a teacher is categorised as being 'provisionally registered' and is entitled to a structured programme of mentoring, professional development, observation, targeted feedback on their teaching and regular assessments based on the standards for full registration. Research indicates that the nature of this induction plays a significant role in the future success and retention of newly qualified teachers (Cameron, Baker, & Lovett, 2006; Education Review Office, 2004, 2005; OECD, 2005; Renwick, 2001). Recent research reports (e.g. Cameron, Baker, & Lovett, 2006; Education Review Office, 2004, 2005; Kane, 2005; Kane & Mallon, 2006; OECD, 2005) have highlighted that the induction programmes experienced by provisionally registered teachers are variable in nature and quality. There are examples of exemplary practice but, in a number of other cases, concerns have been raised regarding the training and support for 'tutor teachers' and others responsible for providing advice and feedback.

Since the induction of provisionally trained teachers is of critical importance for the retention and development of quality teachers, the New Zealand Teachers Council has commissioned a research programme to explore induction theory and practice. Learning to Teach, a three stage research programme, was developed to investigate the nature and quality of advice and guidance provided for provisionally registered teachers in early childhood services, Māori medium settings and in other primary and secondary schools. A reference group was established to guide this research programme, with representatives from NZPPTA, NZEI, Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa, the Ministry of Education and the Council's early childhood and Māori medium advisory groups. The Council thanks them for their support and contribution in helping to guide the research and in considering draft reports.

This publication, Learning to Teach: A Literature Review of Induction Theory and Practice, completes the first stage of the research programme. The Council was pleased to award the contract for this piece of research to the New Zealand Council for Educational Research on the basis of their expertise and skills to carry out this work. Marie Cameron, who has published extensively in this area and is familiar with the literature on teacher induction, was the lead researcher and author of this report. In this report Cameron has carried out a critical review of international and New Zealand literature describing best practices, underpinning theories and evaluations of approaches to induction, including mentoring, assessment and moderation of assessments of newly qualified teachers.

The Council takes pleasure in making this review available to the wider education community. The findings have been helpful in the development of the Council's understanding of, and strategic thinking about, the role of the induction period for newly qualified teachers, as well as informing the second and third stages of the Learning to Teach research programme.

Dr Peter Lind
Director
March 2007

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the numerous people who have assisted with the preparation of this review. Frances Langdon from the University of Auckland contacted colleagues in other colleges and universities for information about current research on teacher induction, and provided copies of some relevant research. Ruth Kane provided research about induction in Canada. Cynthia Shaw from the New Zealand Teachers Council also provided encouragement and copies of relevant research throughout the process, and co-ordinated the feedback from stakeholders on the first draft. We appreciate the conversations with Kerry Ross, Jenny Hay, and Cherie Boyd, who helped us to gain an appreciation of induction issues in the early childhood sector.

Thank you also to Jane Gilbert, the New Zealand Council for Educational Research project sponsor, who read the first draft and provided critical feedback. We also appreciate the critical feedback from Squirrel Main. Thanks are due to Christine Williams and Joanne Edgecombe for their constant cheerfulness and for their preparation of this report. Janet Rivers edited the final report.

1. Introduction

This literature review is seen by the New Zealand Teachers Council as the first of three stages in the establishment of "an evidence base for the development of policies and advice to schools, kura and early childhood centres and to initial teacher education providers, Provisionally Registered Teachers themselves and others in the education community, who have a role in the support and professional education of newly qualified teachers" (Request for Proposals, p. 2).

While many factors contribute to successful outcomes for learners, there is now strong consensus that good teachers matter, and growing awareness that the "quality of the professional experience in the early years of teaching is now seen as a crucial influence on the likelihood of leaving the teaching profession" (OECD, 2005, p. 135), which in turn impacts on teacher quality. Historically, in most countries, beginning teachers have had exactly the same responsibilities as their experienced colleagues, with little or no acknowledgement of their novice status. In many instances they were left alone in their classrooms to "sink or swim" with the result that the profession lost potentially good teachers early in their careers. In the United States, teacher shortages were not the result of people choosing careers other than teaching; shortages resulted from a "revolving door" where new teachers left teaching more quickly than they could be replaced (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). New York City recently invested $36 million in teacher mentoring, when it was realised that it was losing many new teachers annually, spending millions on recruiting new ones and because of "emerging research showing the devastating impact that persistent teacher turnover has on often the most vulnerable students" (New Teacher Center, 2006, p. 1). Induction for new teachers is, therefore, recognised as important, both in retaining beginning teachers and in assisting them to build productively on the early teaching foundations established in their initial teacher education programmes (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005; Ingersoll & Kralik, 2004; Kelley, 2004; OECD, 2005; Youngs, 2002).

According to Totterdell, Woodroffe, Bubb, Daly, and Smart (2004b, p. 4):

While other jurisdictions are waking up to the importance of induction, New Zealand has a history of requiring, for more than 22 years, "advice and guidance programmes" for beginning teachers, and its approach has received favourable international commentary (e.g. Britton, Paine, Pimm, & Raizen, 2003; Clement, 2000; Darling-Hammond, 2005). A United States Department of Education report (1998, p. 33) concluded that new teachers in Australia, Japan, and New Zealand move from college to teaching in much more structured ways than in the United States, characterised by a context where "all professionals take active roles in a new teacher's acculturation and transition" through "mentoring, modeling good teacher practice, orientations, and in-service training". A recent article about induction practices in five countries (Wong, Britton, & Ganser, 2005) stated:

Despite positive evaluations of beginning teacher induction from overseas commentators, there is some concern about the consistency of induction and mentoring of beginning teachers in New Zealand. The New Zealand Teachers Council has identified the two-year induction period for Provisionally Registered Teachers in early childhood centres, primary and secondary schools, and Māori medium settings as the priority area for the Teachers Council to strengthen the teaching profession. The Teachers Council has commissioned a programme of research on teacher induction because of recent evidence that the quality of support provided to provisionally registered teachers is variable (Cameron, Baker, & Lovett, 2006; Education Review Office, 2004, 2005; Kane, 2005; Kane & Mallon, 2006), and the Teachers Council's awareness that "there are particular issues and barriers to establishing good advice and guidance programmes" (Request for Proposals, p. 1).

New Zealand is not alone in facing issues and barriers to the effective implementation of induction policies. A recent report by the London Institute of Education (Totterdell, Bubb, Woodroffe, & Hanrahan, 2004a) based on surveys of newly qualified teachers who experienced induction programmes in 1999—2000 and 2000—2001, found that not all newly qualified teachers received their entitlement to a reduced workload. A more recent study by Bubb and Earley (2006) found that a significant minority of new teachers in England still were not getting their full entitlement of support, mentoring and assessment. They described this as "educational vandalism" occurring at three levels: policy, school, and teacher levels. The authors contend that fiscal mismanagement at the policy level, poor leadership, inequities in some schools, and unwise choices at the individual level all contribute to uneven implementation of the induction of newly qualified teachers.

The intentions of the induction research are to inform policies that firstly support consistently high quality induction into the teaching profession, and secondly that ensure that those who mentor beginning teachers have the skills and knowledge to do this effectively. The key policy goal is to develop practices that will give the Teachers Council, the profession, and the public confidence that Provisionally Registered Teachers have developed their professional learning to a level where they can be awarded fully registered teacher status. The research will also contribute to policy development that will give similar levels of confidence in the assessment processes that lead to Provisionally Registered Teachers being granted full registration. In commissioning this research, the Teachers Council also seeks exemplars of good induction practice that can be shared with the profession.

The second stage of the induction research will be a national survey of provisionally registered teachers at the end of their second year of provisional registration, in November 2006, followed by focus groups of former Provisionally Registered Teachers at the beginning of their third year of teaching early in 2007. A third stage will comprise case studies of effective induction practices in early childhood, primary and secondary schools, and Māori medium settings in 2007.

The context for the induction of Provisionally Registered Teachers in New Zealand

School sector

The "Tomorrow's Schools" legislation in 1987 meant that, in the primary service, newly qualified teachers were no longer guaranteed an initial teaching appointment. Secondary teachers have never had special conditions for their first teaching positions. School inspectors, who previously certified the competence of both newly qualified primary and secondary teachers, were abolished (Moskowitz & Kennedy, 1997). Although schools had been responsible for providing advice and guidance programmes to their beginning teachers since 1985, ¹ they were now responsible for recommending them for full teacher registration.

Schools are required to employ only those teachers who have applied for, and been awarded, provisional teacher registration status by the New Zealand Teachers Council on graduation from an accredited "provider" of initial teacher education. The minimum period of provisional registration is two years. The Ministry of Education provides an allowance to state schools employing a beginning teacher of 0.2 of a full-time teacher salary (five hours a week) for the first year, and 0.1 for the second year. The additional allowance is intended to support schools to provide beginning teachers with an advice and guidance programme to enable them to become fully registered teachers. The time allowance can be shared between the beginning teacher and a tutor teacher in primary schools. The 0.2 time allowance goes directly to the provisionally registered teacher in secondary schools, who has relative autonomy regarding its use (Pettigrew, 2004). Research on how schools use the time allowance is provided later in this report.

Beginning secondary teachers are required to have a reduced workload in their first two years; for example, a first-year teacher should be timetabled for no more than 15 hours of teaching and be allocated five hours of advice and guidance time and five hours of non-contact time for individual duties.

Schools are required to appoint a tutor teacher or supervising teacher with responsibility for working with the beginning teacher to tailor an advice and guidance programme appropriate to the needs of the new teacher. In primary schools, the tutor teacher is usually a teacher who teaches in the same teaching syndicate, and in secondary schools it is typically the head of the subject department in which the beginning teacher is located. The tutor teacher in primary schools is paid a small honorarium ($2,000) in acknowledgement of this role. There is no requirement that tutor teachers be trained for their roles, although some courses are available through School Support Services, universities and colleges of education. Currently there is no formal acknowledgement in the salary scale or career structure for tutor teachers, although the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) is currently discussing career pathways and required training or qualifications for the tutor teacher role. A new scheme to provide heads of departments in secondary schools with a time allowance for each Provisionally Registered Teacher in the department is planned.

In larger secondary schools with several beginning teachers there may be a Provisionally Registered Teacher co-ordinator who oversees the advice and guidance programmes and who may conduct observations and assessments of beginning teachers' classroom teaching. This responsibility may attract one or more management units (increased salary for the duration of the task). In addition, a pilot programme was introduced in 2005 to create Specialist Classroom Teachers (SCTs) to support and assist beginning teachers and other colleagues to develop and demonstrate purposeful learning environments and effective teaching practices. SCT positions attract a time allowance of four hours a week and additional salary of $6,500 for each appointee. The programme is currently being evaluated, and the review will be completed in March 2007. For 2007, the SCT role will continue under largely similar terms and conditions to the 2006 pilot year, (Ministry of Education, Post Primary Teachers Association, & School Trustees Association, 2006). Advice to schools states that:

The SCT role is for advice and guidance only, and is "intended to be kept separate from any appraisal, performance management or competency judgements" (Ministry of Education et al., 2006). While training is not mandated for the SCT role, all new appointees were invited to a training day at the end of 2005, provided with a SCT handbook, and access to ongoing support from an SCT advisor in each School Support Service region. Funding was also provided for a three-day SCT hui in the April holidays. There is also a dedicated SCT website.

There is an expectation from the Teachers Council that Provisionally Registered Teachers are appraised at least twice a year against the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions, and the Ministry of Education requires them to be appraised annually against the Professional Standards for Beginning Teachers. According to the Teachers Council (Shaw, Lind, & Thomas, 2006)

Shaw et al. point out that the dimensions reflect a broad understanding of key aspects of good teaching and are similar to other descriptors of teaching developed 10 years ago. They also note that they are called "dimensions" rather than standards, with individual workplaces expected to develop their own standards to determine whether a teacher meets the above dimensions. This raises issues about the consistency of judgements, with educational leaders in workplaces left with the sole responsibility for judging teacher competence.

After a minimum of two years of supervised teaching, the Provisionally Registered Teacher applies to the Teachers Council for full registration. According to the information on the Teachers Council website, to move from provisional registration to full registration the teacher must:

• complete a total of two years supervised teaching following the gaining of an approved teacher education qualification. The teaching does not have to be only at one learning centre but must be in minimum blocks of 10 weeks in an approved setting
• have a teaching load of a minimum of 12.5 hours per week
• be employed as a teacher–not a teacher aide or a volunteer worker–in the general education system or in institutions approved by the Teachers Council
• participate in an advice and guidance programme for the two-year period, which includes a structured programme in the first year and continuing supervision by a fully registered teacher throughout the second and subsequent years. Evidence of this programme may be requested by the Teachers Council. It is the responsibility of the Provisionally Registered Teacher to keep all evidence of their advice and guidance programme
• meet the "satisfactory teacher" criteria laid down by the Teachers Council
• be recommended for full registration by the professional leader of the learning centre which is employing the teacher. (The Teachers Council will not accept a recommendation unless it is made or supported by a teacher with current full registration.)
• possess a current practising certificate

The Teachers Council audits a random 10 percent sample of records from registration applications as a check that the process has occurred. If there is insufficient evidence of an advice and guidance programme through the two year induction period, the Teachers Council requests further documentation. Where the evidence is not forthcoming, the Provisionally Registered Teacher may remain provisionally registered until this documentation can be provided.

Early childhood sector

Education for children under the age of six is not compulsory in New Zealand, although in practice most children begin school around their fifth birthdays. Parents have a range of choices for early childhood education and care, and in recognition of the importance of early childhood education, the government is committed to increasing opportunities for all New Zealand children to participate in quality early childhood education services (Ministry of Education, 2002). The introduction of professional teacher registration for all teachers in teacher-led ECE services, such as those already applying in state kindergartens and schools is part of the government's strategy to enhance the quality of early childhood education provision.

The strategic plan for early childhood education includes increasing the number of qualified and registered teachers, so all teacher-led ECE services are required to move towards registration of their staff. All persons responsible for the management of centres have been required to be registered teachers since 2005, and 50 percent of regulated staffing will be required to be registered teachers by December 31, 2007, changed from the previous deadline of January 2007 because many centres were having great difficulty finding the qualified staff necessary to meet government requirements. The targets increase steadily until 2012 when it is expected that at least 70 percent of staff will be registered and the remainder studying for a Teachers Council-approved qualification. This means that, unlike their colleagues in the school and state kindergarten sectors, many Provisionally Registered Teachers may have been teaching and studying for their teaching qualification for a number of years before beginning the registration process.

Since mid-2005, all ECE services, including state kindergartens, have been able to access a Ministry of Education Provisionally Registered Teacher support grant for each of two years to support the induction of permanently appointed Provisionally Registered Teachers in their employment. If the Provisionally Registered Teacher moves to a new service during their two years, the first service ceases claiming and the new employer has to apply for the support grant. The grant is currently $3,700 and, within broad Ministry of Education guidelines, it is up to each service to determine how best to use the funding. Some services, for example state kindergartens, and Salvation Army services, have negotiated a Tutor Teacher Allowance in their employment contracts, although the funding for this comes out of the Provisionally Registered Teacher support grant. The Provisionally Registered Teacher support grant is not paid for long-term relievers or those on fixed-term contracts.

In the early childhood education and care sector, the person holding the operating licence for the education facility is responsible for ensuring that the centre has policies and procedures in place to support the advice and guidance programme for each Provisionally Registered Teacher. One of the key issues for Provisionally Registered Teachers in the early childhood sector is that without a tradition of teacher registration, there is a small pool of fully registered teachers available to contribute to advice and guidance programmes. In contrast with other sectors, the responsibility for finding a supervising/mentor teacher resides with the Provisionally Registered Teacher:

Another consequence of the shortage of fully registered early childhood teachers is that there is no requirement that the fully registered teacher be an early childhood teacher.

Because of this shortage, the sector has developed a number of initiatives to assist Provisionally Registered Teachers. For example, one nationwide private provider pools the support funding to employ teacher registration supervisors to work with Provisionally Registered Teachers in cluster groups, visit them in their centres, and provide formative and summative assessment. There is a system of support and training for the facilitators. Provisionally Registered Teachers receive four observations by trained observers over their two-year induction period. Data from observations and records of professional development are maintained on a central database so that should teachers move centres, or misplace their records, the company can provide them with copies for registration purposes.

The kindergarten sector has had the same requirement for teacher registration as the schools sector since 1990. This has resulted in a bigger pool of fully registered teachers to mentor Provisionally Registered Teachers than in the education and care sector. Local kindergarten associations, as the employers of teachers, also provide personnel to support and oversee registration. Some associations have developed written supports including registration handbooks, such as that developed by the Auckland Kindergarten Association (Auckland Kindergarten Association, 2006). Tutor teachers (who must be fully registered teachers) receive two days' release a year to work with their Provisionally Registered Teacher, and Provisionally Registered Teachers receive a day a term. The time allows Provisionally Registered Teachers to participate in and record details of their advice and guidance programme, observe the teaching practice of other teachers, seek out appropriate external professional development, and attend Auckland Kindergarten Association workshops throughout their two years as Provisionally Registered Teachers. Professional support managers, who may be a senior manager in the kindergarten where the Provisionally Registered Teacher is employed, are responsible for overseeing advice and guidance programmes and for ensuring that appraisals are conducted and sent to the Auckland Kindergarten Association for review and for inclusion in their registration files.

Kaupapa Māori sector

"Kaupapa Māori education has grown and developed through the passion and efforts of Māori whānau, hapū, hapū and iwi. It has arisen out of a shared vision and common desire to foster and retain the Māori language and culture, and to ensure learning, within this sector, is driven by and reflective of the needs of Māori learners." (Group Māori Ministry of Education, 2006, Executive Summary, para.5). Kaupapa Māori education includes education within kōhanga reo and puna kōhungahunga in early childhood education, bilingual and immersion units and classes and kura kaupapa Māori and wharekura in the schooling sector, and wānanga at tertiary level. Teachers in this sector require fluency in te reo Māori, and are highly sought after in both kaupapa Māori and general education facilities and throughout the public sector. Retention of teachers in this sector has been identified by the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) as a serious problem:

When compulsory teacher registration was re-introduced in 1996, persons who were employed to teach in kura kaupapa Māori schools were exempt. Until 2006, there was no requirement for teachers in kura kaupapa Māori (KKM) settings to be qualified and registered teachers. This is likely to impact on the availability of fully registered teachers who are also fluent in te reo Māori, to support the induction of teachers in this sector.

The New Zealand context, perhaps because of its vanguard status within the international field of induction, provides for a variety of approaches to teacher induction. Secondary, primary, early childhood and Māori sectors each lend idiosyncratic differences to the New Zealand induction landscape. There is a need for greater understanding of these complexities. This leads to the questions this review examines throughout the remainder of this document. What, for example, can the international literature tell us about the characteristics of sound induction practice? How do different jurisdictions support their beginning teachers, and how do they determine that they are eligible for full registration? What do we know already about induction of teachers in the New Zealand context? Accordingly, the Teachers Council has posed a number of questions to guide its induction project. These are outlined in the following section.

Literature review questions

The Request for Proposals from the Teachers Council posed a number of key questions to guide the three stages of the induction research. There is considerable overlap between the questions. This literature review addresses the first four questions and provides initial commentary on other areas where there is research evidence.

1. What are the features of effective advice and guidance programmes, including formative and summative assessment processes, as identified by the literature, the Teachers Council, and other key stakeholders?

2. What knowledge, preparation, and support do mentoring teachers require to work effectively with Provisionally Registered Teachers within a structured advice and guidance programme?

3. What is the nature of existing practices, including assessment processes, of advice and guidance programmes accessed by Provisionally Registered Teachers in a range of settings in New Zealand?

4. What is known about the impact of such programmes on the professional learning of Provisionally Registered Teachers?

5. What examples are there, in a range of settings in New Zealand, of exemplary practices and of ways of dealing with problematic situations when supporting Provisionally Registered Teachers through effective advice and guidance programmes?

6. What contextual supports are needed when supporting Provisionally Registered Teachers through effective advice and guidance programmes?

2. Methodology

The research brief (Request for Proposals) called for a critical review of international and New Zealand literature describing best practices, underpinning theories and evaluations of approaches to induction, including mentoring and assessment and moderation of assessments of newly qualified teachers. The review is "required to take account of the particular contexts of early childhood and Māori medium in New Zealand. The latter may require the analysis of research in other indigenous settings" (Request for Proposals, p. 3).

A variety of approaches were taken to search for and select research for this review. We searched for research held on a variety of library databases using the following search terms: induction, beginning teachers, newly qualified teachers, indigenous teachers, mentoring, retention.

Library staff at NZCER provided us with abstracts of conference reports and theses and followed up our requests for interloans. Our colleagues at the Faculty of Education at the University of Auckland assisted us by contacting academics at New Zealand institutions to locate local scholarship on teacher induction, and by providing copies of additional research. This strategy yielded some directly relevant New Zealand published work, some unpublished internal evaluations from providers, some conference presentations, and details of three PhD theses in progress.

As with the recent New Zealand teacher education literature review we conducted for the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Council (Cameron & Baker, 2004) we did not require New Zealand research to be published or peer reviewed as this would have seriously curtailed the research we could include.

We also searched websites of teachers' councils, professional organisations, and various accreditation bodies and agencies with a focus on beginning teachers in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Scotland, and the United States. Ruth Kane, from the University of Ottawa, located research on teacher induction in Canada for this review.

The seven-week time frame allocated for this component of the research project did not allow for a fully comprehensive search of the literature or document delivery from international sources so our approach has been to summarise findings from key syntheses of research on teacher induction, as well as research published subsequently.

The research brief also requires us to examine non-empirical material such as documented advice from the Teachers Council, teacher unions and other stakeholders.

There are problems with much of the literature on induction and mentoring with a major issue identified as selection bias because "the schools that have induction programs are also likely to support teachers in other ways" (Johnson, Harrison Berg, & Donaldson, 2005, p. 88). There is also a dearth of studies comparing teachers who experienced induction programmes with those who had no induction, although the United States has recently provided funding for a control group-treatment multi-year study (Squirrel Main, personal communication, 13th November, 2006). Furthermore, it is difficult to compare the outcomes of "induction" programmes because they can range from a one-hour orientation to systematic programmes involving trained mentors, release time, comprehensive formative and summative assessment, and broad professional development opportunities. Allen (2005, p. 119) in his review of the international literature on induction, found only three studies he considered to be sufficiently robust to allow for strong conclusions to be drawn about the specific components that make induction and mentoring programmes successful, and recommended that "those who are considering implementing such programs will have to rely on the consensus of expert opinion." Despite these caveats, however, we think that the knowledge base on induction is sufficiently robust to provide some answers to the questions posed by the Teachers Council.

3. Question 1: Features of effective advice and guidance programmes

The first research question was:

The stakeholders consulted for this report included the teacher unions and employers, including representatives from kindergarten associations, and the private education and care sector.

This section begins by defining the terms "induction" and "mentoring", and their relationship with advice and guidance programmes. We then discuss the different definitions of effectiveness in relation to programmes of support for new teachers. This is followed by describing how the Teachers Council and others describe "effective" advice and guidance programmes. We then report the international literature on the characteristics of effective induction and mentoring programmes, and the sparse literature on induction in early childhood education and indigenous contexts. We then describe the key features of six induction programmes–in the United States, Canada, Scotland, and Australia–with a specific focus on how beginning teachers are assessed. The final part of this question explores assessment of Provisionally Registered Teachers in the New Zealand context, concluding with implications of the overall research for their assessment.

Induction and mentoring: what are they?

There is some confusion in the literature and in practice ² about the terms mentoring and induction. Wong (2005) distinguishes induction from mentoring as follows:

"Induction" is therefore more than a specific stage in a teacher's career. Ideally it builds on the knowledge and skills that new teachers bring with them from their initial teacher education programmes, and involves both socialisation into the teaching workplace and structured and on going professional learning opportunities. Feiman-Nemser (2001, p. 1026), in an often-quoted paper, asserts:

Feiman-Nemser describes the central tasks of teacher induction as supporting new teachers as they: gain knowledge of students, curriculum, and school context; design responsive curriculum and instruction; enact a beginning repertoire in purposeful ways; create a classroom learning community; develop a professional identity, and learn in and from practice. Totterdell et al. (2004a, p. 10) report the view of the General Teaching Council for England that induction should be established as part of a continuum "starting with how teachers are recruited, trained and appointed, through how they are inducted and supported, to finally how they are assessed, rewarded and developed professionally".

Induction programmes, particularly in large schools, typically involve an orientation programme to help new teachers understand the expectations of their particular contexts. They provide information on "how things are done around here" for responsibilities such as keeping records on attendance and children's learning, and how to locate and access resources. Often this is the only induction component some beginning teachers get. Whisnant, Elliot, & Pynchon (2005, p. 12) point out that in the United States:

Research has shown that while there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to induction (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004) there is a growing knowledge base about the characteristics of effective induction programmes. These will be discussed in the next section of the report.

The term "mentoring" is often used interchangeably with induction in the United States because "mentoring has been the dominant form of teacher induction" (Fulton, Yoon, & Lee, 2005, p. 4). Mentoring, however, is an important component of support to beginning teachers, not the only support, and the appointment of a mentor cannot be assumed to address the learning needs of a new teacher.

Achinstein & Villar (2004, p. 311) define mentoring as a strong professional relationship where a new teacher is paired with a veteran teacher "who attends to the professional development of beginning teachers through ongoing observation, conversations and assessment of practice, goal setting aligned with standards of quality teaching, and technical and emotional support".

Mentoring has evolved in the past 10 or so years from an emphasis on short-term practical advice and emotional support to a process with the potential to strengthen teaching throughout a teaching career (Wang & Odell, 2002, reported in Whisnant et al., ibid.).

Totterdell et al., (2004a, p. 7) align the purposes of mentoring with that of any effective professional development, suggesting that "the aim of all professional development activities should be to bring about a change in the thinking and practice of participants, which in turn should have a positive impact in the workplace". This type of professional development should therefore:

• improve the thought and practice of teachers and their provision for students.
• develop the personal and professional attributes, knowledge, skills, understanding, experience and values of teachers.
• help teachers to gain confidence and competence and maintain them.
• provide teachers with a means of valuing their learning and help them demonstrate it to others
• enable teachers to see everyday practice as the actual source of professional learning.

The research of Totterdell et al. (2004a) supports emerging evidence from the New Zealand best evidence synthesis on professional learning and development described in Timperley, Fung, Wilson, & Barrar (2006). Timperley et al. (ibid.) suggest that teachers learn to teach in ways that impact on student learning in particular types of professional learning environments. They suggest that professional learning activities such as telling, modelling and demonstrating, observation and feedback, examination of student outcomes, analysis of current practice and co-construction of new practice, and discussion of self or mutually identified issues, can act as vehicles for promoting iterative learning processes that may cause teachers to consider the congruence of their current practice with their intended purposes. If the process creates sufficient cognitive dissonance in teachers, they may change their thinking and classroom practice. The kinds of interactions that assist experienced teachers to critically evaluate their practice and learn how to enhance it are also likely to assist beginning teachers to do likewise.

What does "effective" mean in the context of induction?

The most common measure of the effectiveness of induction programmes internationally is relatively low level: whether they reduce the attrition of teachers in the early years of teaching. While it would seem that retention should be a relatively easily measured outcome, it can be hard to correlate data on teacher retention with participation in induction activities, given the variability of induction programmes. Numerous descriptive studies have documented variations in content and characteristics, duration and intensity; their purposes; approaches to mentoring; and provision of additional resources (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004).

A second measure of effectiveness is the impact of induction on teacher satisfaction and confidence. Teacher confidence and job satisfaction is typically measured through surveys and interviews. Do teachers feel that teaching has turned out to be all they hoped; do they think that they have been able to "make a difference" in the lives and learning of their charges? This is an important measure because teachers typically enter teaching to "make a difference" to children and young persons' learning and life chances (Hall & Langton, 2006; Kane & Mallon, 2006) and a key reason they leave teaching is dissatisfaction resulting from frustration that they are not able to achieve these purposes (Johnson et al., 2005).

A third measure of effectiveness is the impact of induction on teachers' expertise. Specifically, has induction assisted them to become better at helping children and young people to become interested and successful learners? Has it fostered the disposition to look for evidence of the impact of their teaching? Has the feedback provided during their period as Provisionally Registered Teachers helped them to refine and develop their teaching approaches and their relationships with learners, parents and caregivers? Did their induction programme provide opportunities to learn from their more experienced colleagues? Recently there has been more research which seeks evidence of impact beyond that obtained from surveys or interviews, and which includes measures of the achievement of students taught by teachers who experienced high quality induction programmes. There are few such studies, probably because retention has been the major focus of most studies, and because these outcomes are "notoriously difficult to measure" (Strong, 2004, p. 12), but the literature review will report this evidence where it is available.

The Teachers Council uses the terms "successful" (New Zealand Teachers Council & Ministry of Education, 2006, Section One, p. 3), and "good" (New Zealand Teachers Council & Ministry of Education, 2006, Section Four, p. 9) in referring to "effective" advice and guidance programmes. A "successful" advice and guidance programme "ensures that Provisionally Registered Teachers . . . meet the requirements for full registration". Thus, "effective" programmes of advice and guidance in the New Zealand context are those which impact on teachers' expertise in relation to the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions, as well as:

There has been no research specifically on whether New Zealand advice and guidance programmes ensure that teachers who are awarded fully registered status exhibit the criteria listed above, although the Education Review Office, using its own "indicators" of effectiveness has recently conducted a national evaluation of Provisionally Registered Teachers (Education Review Office, 2004) which will be discussed in the section on New Zealand research on induction. The next stage of the research, the survey of second-year Provisionally Registered Teachers, will provide evidence of their perceptions of the effectiveness of their advice and guidance programmes.

For the purposes of this review, the measures used as indicators of effectiveness, are those used in the reviewed research. The fourth Teachers Council question, "What is known about the impact of such programmes on the professional learning of the Provisionally Registered Teachers?" will be addressed within our response to Question One.

How do the Teachers Council and other documentation describe effective advice and guidance programmes?

New Zealand recommendations about the components of advice and guidance programmes reflect the growing consensus about the need for comprehensive induction programmes, and professional development activities with the potential to enhance the professional learning of Provisionally Registered Teachers. The Handbook, Towards Full Registration: A Support Kit (2006, Section Four, p. 9) writing for Provisionally Registered Teachers in the schools sector, describes the following features of a "good" advice and guidance programme as including:

The Teachers Council website and the joint Ministry of Education and Teachers Council publication for Provisionally Registered Teachers, Towards Full Registration: A Support Kit (2006, Section One, p. 7) provide further examples of worthwhile activities to include in an advice and guidance programme:

• observations of other teachers and students in Provisionally Registered Teacher's own or another learning centre
• discussions with parents, whānau, community resource people
• developing knowledge of learners and their families/whānau/communities and understanding of their learning strengths and needs
• professional discussions with colleagues
• discussion with other teachers such as guidance counsellors, senior staff or advisers
• becoming familiar with the library, teaching resources and records of the learning centre
• finding out about policies, procedures, and expectations in the Provisionally Registered Teacher's learning centre
• studying professional material analysing own professional needs and development
• participating in courses and meetings which require release from teaching duties
• participating in internal professional development
• being observed teaching and receiving feedback on strengths and areas for further feedback
• developing curriculum and teaching and learning knowledge and understanding through reading and discussion with colleagues
• planning and preparation of learning programmes
• reflecting on continuous improvement as a teacher
• working through issues and problems with supervising/tutor teacher to develop appropriate strategies to strengthen teaching
• improving understanding and use of assessment tools, including how to use the information they provide to plan for further teaching and for reporting purposes
• increasing knowledge and understanding of te reo me ona tikanga Māori.

Fuller descriptions of documentation relevant to different sectors from Towards Full Registration: A Support Kit (New Zealand Teachers Council & Ministry of Education, 2006) are attached as Appendix A.

NZEI describes the features of an advice and guidance programme to primary level Provisionally Registered Teachers as including:

• a programme that is developed and agreed to by you, your tutor teacher, and principal and that enables you to work towards continually demonstrating the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions;
• professional and personal support from your colleagues, principal, and employers;
• observation and appraisal of your teaching by your colleagues;
• opportunities to observe and discuss the work of other teachers;
• appropriate courses and meetings;
• a written record of your professional learning, including of your advice and guidance programme, of your professional discussions and appraisals, and of the plans for providing you with further support and development;
• clear, preset goals that provide you with opportunities for reflection and development (NZEI, 2006a, p. 11)

Other organisations have produced booklets to supplement the official publication Towards Full Registration: A Support Kit (2006). The Auckland Kindergarten Association provides a handbook for Provisionally Registered Teachers. This handbook includes a registration contract to formalise the supervision process, as well as explicit links to the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions to provide focus for advice and guidance programmes. The handbook offers comprehensive and structured advice for documenting process towards the satisfactory teacher dimensions, including a framework for reflection based on Smyth (1989).

Auckland Kindergarten Association guidelines emphasise that the process is participant driven, with Provisionally Registered Teachers expected to carry responsibility for ensuring that they are meeting registration requirements. A Teacher Registration Assessment booklet for recording the necessary assessments, advice and guidance on each of the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions, can be purchased from the Early Childhood Council.

All of the publications build on the official documentation, and attempt to simplify the registration process for Provisionally Registered Teachers. Publications vary according to the extent to which they portray the registration process as formative "learning journeys" or as technical tasks that have to be "achieved".

There appears to be more scope for guidance on the types of evidence that Provisionally Registered Teachers could use as evidence of achievement of the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions. Currently, Appendix Five (p.20) in Towards Full Registration: A Support Kit offers examples of documentation that could be collected. For example:

• Your notes from your observations of children and your comments on how these observations informed your teaching (ECE sector).
• Your supervising teacher's or principal's records of observations of your teaching. These may include examples of plans that you have developed for your class. (Schools sector).
• A record of your reflection on your teaching. This may include reflection on:

What are the characteristics of effective induction and mentoring programmes?

There is considerable literature identifying the components that contribute to effective induction programmes. For the purposes of this review, mentoring is conceptualised as a component that contributes to an overall induction programme.

Effective mentoring programmes

This section refers to mentoring programmes rather than mentor characteristics which are the focus of Question 2. The literature clearly points to a need to attend to the learning and conditions of mentors as well as beginning teachers if mentoring is to achieve its intended purposes of impacting on teacher practices and children's and students' learning.

The New Teacher Center (2006) recently evaluated New York City's new teacher mentoring programme, and has published a mentor quality checklist for "high quality" mentoring programmes (see Table 1).

Most of the characteristics in Table 1 could also apply to mentoring programmes in New Zealand, although we are not recommending that fully released mentors are needed to support effective induction in most New Zealand contexts, because there is considerable literature showing that teacher professional learning is most effective when it is school-based and integral to the work of the school (Guskey, 2002; Joyce, & Showers, 2002). In contexts where suitable mentors are not available (such as some early childhood contexts) or where there are insufficient teachers to offer collaborative learning opportunities (for example in small rural communities), fully released mentors may be a useful option.

Mentoring programmes are also likely to have more impact on teacher expertise when they are well aligned with overall systemic goals for education. Thus, in New Zealand, mentoring programmes should be aligned with government priorities to ensure the success of all learners by promoting effective teaching for all children, and family and community engagement in education. Alignment with programmes such as Enhancing Effective Practice in Special Education (EEPiSE) and In-service Teacher Education Practice (INSTEP) could strengthen mentoring approaches, requiring provision for mentors to develop their own understandings of current initiatives and evidence-based practice. Although the review of the Specialist Classroom Teacher scheme is still in progress, efforts have clearly been made to leverage system change by building on the knowledge and skills of Specialist Classroom Teachers.

Table 1 Mentor quality checklist (from New Teacher Center p. 6, 2006)

Effective induction programmes

Effective induction programmes have been shown to include a number of aligned and integrated components which contribute to what Britton, Paine, Pimm, and Raizen (2003) describe as "comprehensive" approaches to induction, as opposed to more "limited" and less effective approaches. Table 2 outlines the key features of limited and comprehensive approaches to induction.

Table 2 Key features of limited versus comprehensive induction programmes (Britton, Paine, Pimm, & Raizen, 2003, p. 2)

Increasingly induction is being conceptualised as a stage in a continuum of teacher development that supports entry into a learning community (Carroll, Fulton, Yoon, & Lee, 2005). These authors define induction as both a period of time and "a network of supports, people, and processes that are all focussed on assuring that novices become effective in their work" (Carroll et al., 2005, p. 4) with induction conceptualised as a process that lasts up to three years, that includes key elements such as opportunities to observe and be observed by other teachers, common planning time, and participation in a network of teachers. New initiatives in initial teacher education such as the Scottish Teachers for a New Era programme, promote initial teacher education as the first stage of a six-year continuum of supported teacher development, which extends from a four-year degree programme into the first two years of practice in schools. Developers intend that this will be achieved through partnerships between the University of Aberdeen and local school authorities. ³

Bubb et al. (2002, cited in Totterdell et al., 2004a, p. 7) define induction as a process that can be seen to align well with expectations of New Zealand advice and guidance programmes:

Arends and Winitzky (1999, cited in Totterdell et al., 2004a), and Bartell (2005) reviewed and summarised research on existing beginning induction programmes in the United States. The characteristics of effective induction programmes are summarised as follows:

• clarity about the purpose and intended outcomes of the programme
• sufficient attention to leadership and administration of the programme
• fostering collaboration among organisations, groups and individuals involved in providing induction services
• knowledge about and linkages with the initial teacher education that prepared the beginning teacher
• clear definitions for "effective teaching"
• understanding of the processes of learning to teach
• monitoring the process of learning to teach
• monitoring how induction is delivered
• giving attention to the context in which they are assigned to work and providing "appropriate for experience" teaching assignments for new teachers
• using mentoring to guide new teachers. Mentors should be carefully selected and trained to effectively guide and assist new teachers
• provide scheduled, structured time for experienced and beginning teachers to work together
• provide professional development to support induction- training that is related to their immediate needs and their current stage of professional development
• classroom-based observation, feedback and assistance
• feedback about progress in meeting professional goals and expectations
• awareness of the value of socialization in the induction process
• evaluation of the programme and its impact on new teachers and those they teach.

(From Bartell, 2005, pp. 65—66, and Arends & Winitzky, 1999, cited in Totterdell et al., 2004a, p. 32.)

The Australian Commonwealth Department of Science, Education and Training (2002, p. 11) suggests that the literature reveals a number of attributes of effective support programmes. These are summarised as a set of 10 key characteristics:

• Effective programmes serve several purposes, including orientation, personal and professional support, professional development and appraisal.
• Effective programmes are multi-dimensional, addressing teachers' personal, professional and pedagogical needs.
• Effective programmes acknowledge the strengths and potential contribution of beginning teachers.
• Effective programmes adopt a differentiated approach, focused on individual needs and goals, rather than standardised content.
• Support is sequenced to match beginning teachers' changing developmental needs.
• Provision of the support programme is co-ordinated between different levels of jurisdiction.
• Effective programmes combine a range of strategies to serve different purposes and needs.
• Assessment is managed so that it does not overwhelm, undermine or conflict with provision of support.
• Teaching loads and other responsibilities are allocated appropriately to suit beginning teachers' skills and experience.
• Effective programmes depend on school (and district) cultures, which foster openness, collaboration and help-seeking.

Whisnant, Elliott, and Pynchon (2005) drew together papers from several sources to come up with recommendations for the effective induction of new teachers. We have adapted these recommendations for the New Zealand context, and have included additional recommendations from other sources as identified in, in Table 3. We have also added two further categories: "Align induction programmes with existing school improvement approaches", and "Build systemic commitment, within and outside schools, to support all teachers' professional learning."

Table 3 Effective components of induction programmes from Whisnant, Elliott, and Pynchon (2005); Youngs, (2002); Arends and Winitzky, 1999; and Stansbury and Zimmerman (2002).

While it does not specifically focus on beginning teacher induction, the New Zealand Best Evidence Synthesis Characteristics of Professional Development Linked to Enhanced Pedagogy and Children's Learning in Early Childhood Settings (Mitchell & Cubey, 2003), summarises the evidence on approaches to professional learning in early childhood education that have been linked with changes in teacher practice and enhanced children's learning. We suggest that induction practices that emphasise the characteristics in the Best Evidence Synthesis would constitute powerful induction for Provisionally Registered Teachers. These practices are shown in Table 4.

Table 4 Characteristics of effective professional development linked to enhanced pedagogy and children's learning in early childhood education settings

Overall, the literature on induction reported so far in this review highlights the need for induction programmes to be based on a clear rationale and purpose and for adequate resources to be provided to achieve the intended goals. Beginning teachers should have a reduced workload, and expectations for extra school- or centre-related work should not conflict with core teaching work. Programmes include, but are not restricted to, one-to-one mentoring, and provide structured opportunities for learning within and outside particular teaching contents. Ideally mentors will be people with the interpersonal skills, commitment, and knowledge to enhance the beginning teacher's practice, and they will be given professional development and support to help their beginning teacher to achieve the goals of the induction programme. Integral to effective induction programmes are opportunities for beginning teachers to observe models of good teaching practices, and to receive structured feedback on their own teaching. There is general agreement that induction programmes should be focused on the needs of each beginning teacher, as identified by observations, analysis of children's or students' learning, and discussion, all of which contribute to a formalised induction plan. They combine new teacher support, development, and assessment. Induction programmes are more likely to be productive when they occur in settings where more experienced teachers are committed to supporting their new colleagues, in cultures that foster openness, collaboration, and asking for help. New Zealand policies and recommended approaches to induction favour comprehensive approaches although not all sectors currently have the resources to support teachers and Provisionally Registered Teachers sufficiently.

International literature on induction in early childhood settings

The syntheses of literature on induction we have found so far focus entirely on the school sector. A new Eric search since the first draft found one reference only and it had little relevance to this review. One problem is that the term "early childhood" is defined differently in other contexts, and does not appear to include teachers of children aged from 0—3 years as in New Zealand. We do not assume that the literature from the school sector will apply to teachers in early childhood contexts, but until there is relevant literature, we have to use what currently exists.

Noble and Macfarlane (2005) present findings of a longitudinal study by Noble, Goddard, and O'Brien (2003) in Queensland that highlights significant differences in the timing of "burn-out" between teachers in the primary, secondary, and early childhood sectors. They identify problems of isolation for beginning teachers in some early childhood settings, resulting in fewer opportunities to develop their understandings of teaching with more experienced colleagues. They also identify heavy workloads as inhibiting opportunities to establish professional networks. The professional development that is available to early childhood teachers in Queensland is held with their primary school colleagues, a process which fails to address their own professional concerns.

International literature on induction in indigenous settings

We located little research that specifically addressed the induction of indigenous beginning teachers. A study of eight new Native American teachers (Figueira, 2000, cited in Demmert & Towner, 2003) reported:

In Figueira's study, despite the importance of a supportive cultural context for beginning Native American teachers, it was found that:

Figueira describes how mentoring supported beginning Native American teachers in identifying issues, prioritising goals, resolving problems and developing a reflective practice that responded to the needs of their Native students.

We found an unpublished masters thesis (Stewart, 2005) that explored the personal and professional identities of nine indigenous teachers in British Columbia, Canada. Stewart points out that little has been written about indigenous teachers, with the focus to date being on indigenous children and schools. Issues that may be relevant to the review include their perception that their programmes of initial teacher education were devalued as "easier" than mainstream programmes; expectations that they would act as "cultural knowledge brokers" for their colleagues as well as teaching students; and obligations to other indigenous teachers and school workers as well as to their communities. The teachers felt pressure to perform for their non-Native colleagues:

The available research highlights the extra complexities inherent in indigenous settings, and points to the need for greater research attention to the sorts of induction experiences that would retain and enhance teachers in indigenous teaching contexts.

Summative and formative assessment processes used in induction programmes and teacher registration

The relationship between the supportive process of induction and the judgemental process of assessment for registration is hotly debated in the literature (Commonwealth Department of Education Science and Training, 2002). However, both formative and summative assessment processes provide feedback on teaching and can contribute to effective induction programmes.

Formative assessment processes are those which help Provisionally Registered Teachers to identify what they are doing well, and pinpoint how they can develop their teaching. These processes can partially be achieved by individual teacher reflection on their work, but learning is richer when it is scaffolded by an informed "other" such as a mentor teacher. Information from formative assessment contributes to decisions about the sorts of professional learning that might benefit the Provisionally Registered Teacher (for example: assistance with planning, observing another teacher; videoing and jointly analysing their teaching; attending a short course in an area of identified interest or need). Engaging in formative assessment has the potential to support habits of self-reflection and career-long professional growth (Villar & Strong, 2005).

Summative assessment is the assessment that summarises a teacher's accomplishments at a particular point in time although it can also be used formatively to help a teacher develop in identified areas. It can also be used to determine that a Provisionally Registered Teacher has demonstrated the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to move to fully registered teacher status. Traditional ways of assessing teachers' competency in the United States for licensing decisions, such as tests of teacher knowledge, have been subject to much criticism for their lack of authenticity and predictive validity (Pecheone & Chung, 2006). Berliner (2005) also notes that in the United States, "despite many attempts to demonstrate the validity of the National Teacher Examination in predicting ratings of teaching competence and/or student achievement, no predictive validity could be found" (p. 208). Berliner contends that to validly assess teachers "will require highly discerning observers who spend their time watching teachers teach" (p. 208).

Traditionally, researchers have considered that formative and summative processes should be kept separate, because of a belief that it is difficult for the mentoring relationship when the mentor is also the assessor (Moskowitz & Stephens, 1997). Under the sub-title "Assistance not Assessment", The APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Teacher Preparation and Professional Development Study (1997) ⁴ states the following as one of its conclusions:

Some researchers suggest that mentoring partnerships are far more fruitful when novice teachers are treated as an equal in the relationship. Hargreaves and Fullan (2000, p. 3) comment on the importance of effective mentoring:

Fullan warns against using assessment as a focal point of induction: "Assessment-based induction schemes run the risk of reducing teaching to less significant goals and of repelling the best teacher prospects and teacher-leaders" (p. 2). Fullan, however, does see a place for assessment in a supportive context where teachers grow through making mistakes and learning from them.

More recently there is a growing consensus that the most appropriate person to provide critical feedback is the person who is the most familiar with the context of the beginning teacher, and that it is often not feasible to carry out separate processes (Commonwealth Department of Education Science and Training, 2002). A paper on the Teachers College Record website (Yusko & Feiman-Nemser, in press) argues that formative assessment (assistance) and summative assessment can coexist, and with appropriate training and support it is possible for mentors to combine both processes while retaining the trust of new teachers and promoting their development and their students' learning.

The following section describes some well-researched programmes, and identifies how assessment contributes to the support provided to beginning teachers.

Connecticut's Beginning Teacher Educator Support and Training (BEST) programme

Based on a study set in Connecticut during 2000—2001, Youngs (2002) examined the impact (in terms of retention) of Connecticut's Beginning Teacher Educator Support and Training (BEST) programme in two school districts. The BEST programme provides beginning teachers with mentoring and other support, such as subject specific seminars that are designed to familiarise beginning teachers with the state's teaching standards and the portfolio requirements. Some of the seminars are now on-line.

Part of Youngs' report focused on how beginning teachers are supported and assessed. To ensure that mentors are prepared for both roles, they are required by the state to participate in three days of BEST training, provided by experienced mentors, teacher educators and/or BEST regional field staff.

Teachers-in-residence are seconded from schools for two-year periods to work in the BEST programme to design the content specific seminars for first and second year teachers, to respond to their queries, and to develop and score beginning teacher portfolios. Scorers attend two days of training, and work from 10 to 12 paid days in their summer holidays benchmarking and scoring portfolios.

At the end of their second year of teaching, teachers are required to submit several pieces of work from one or two teaching units, such as a description of their teaching context, lesson plans, two videotapes of their teaching the unit, samples of student work, and teacher commentaries on their planning, teaching, and assessment of student achievement. The portfolio requirements are highly structured and teachers are given detailed handbooks to support their preparation. A primary school teacher would complete a portfolio in "elementary education", whereas secondary teachers would complete a portfolio relevant to their subject specialism. Early childhood teachers are not included in BEST.

Connecticut's approach to assessing the portfolios has been characterised as "integrative and dialogic" (Moss, 1998, reported in Youngs, 2002). ⁵ Each portfolio is scored independently by two trained assessors who teach in the same content area as the beginning teacher whose portfolio they are assessing. They then moderate together. Initially, the assessors use a discipline-specific evaluation framework to judge the teacher's work, and then they summarise information across the portfolio as a whole against a set of guiding questions using a scoring rubric, as they determine overall performance. It takes four to five hours to score each portfolio. If teacher performance on the portfolio is judged to be unsatisfactory, they may resubmit a new portfolio in their third year of teaching. If they are unsuccessful this time, they are ineligible for licensure, and may not remain as teachers in Connecticut.

During the second year, the teachers-in-residence work with beginning teachers, sometimes in their schools, to help them to understand the state standards, use specific teaching strategies, and reflect on their teaching by examining student work. Many of the schools in the districts studied also include aspects of the portfolio process into their teacher evaluation processes, and principals have had a major role in the development of the standards. As a result of the district policy on mentor assignment, work conditions, and support for beginning teachers, in combination with effective principal leadership, Youngs (2002) concludes that new teachers experience comprehensive support and opportunities to learn to develop their teaching practice, and as a result the percentages of teachers who remain in teaching (around 90 percent) are higher than in similar districts elsewhere.

California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) programme

An example of another induction programme that has been demonstrated to enhance retention and enhance teacher capability is the California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) programme (Villar & Strong, 2005). The principal goal of this programme is to create the professional conditions for beginning teachers that are most likely to keep them from leaving and to ensure their professional success (Fletcher & Barrett, 2003). This programme is available to all Californian beginning teachers, and typically features fully released mentors each with caseloads of 15 teachers. The mentors meet at least once a week for two hours with each beginning teacher to provide observation and coaching, emotional support, help with planning and classroom management, demonstration lessons and curriculum resources, and to facilitate communication with the principal. Beginning teachers also have some release time, and also attend monthly seminars designed to enhance teaching pedagogy and to embed them in a support network with ongoing professional dialogue with their peers.

The programme includes a formative assessment system aligned with district expectations for performance management, and content standards and student needs. A support provider/assessor assesses the performance of each beginning teacher with one or more complex measures at the onset of the programme and at multiple points during the induction programme to document progress over a period of time. Each assessment is based on the California Standards for the Teaching Profession. The assessment information is used to determine the scope, focus, and content of professional development activities that are the basis of the beginning teacher's Individual Induction Plan. New teachers may move forward in their professional practice in a variety of ways, developing at different rates in different areas of teaching.

Villar and Strong (ibid., p.9) claim that the features of the programme are consistent with Smith and Ingersoll's (2004) highest level of induction support; that is, "basic induction, plus collaboration, plus teacher networks, plus extra resources". Their research shows that the programme is associated with high retention, and student achievement in reading is at the same levels as those taught by experienced teachers. In addition, the benefits and costs of mentoring over five years "demonstrates a societal return of 1.50 distributed among teachers, districts and students for every dollar invested in new teacher induction".

Thompson, Paek, Goe, and Ponte (2004) compared teachers who had a high level of exposure to the California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) programme and the California Formative Assessment and Support System for Teachers (CFASST) to teachers who had little or no exposure. They found that high-level exposure teachers were better at planning, were more likely to ask their students higher-order questions, and were more likely to provide substantive, specific formative feedback to students. Students of teachers with high engagement with the programme outscored the students of the low-engagement teachers by an average of .25 standard deviations across six standardised tests. Though these differences were not statistically significant, the authors concluded that the consistency of the results suggests that BTSA/CFASST has a positive impact on student achievement.

The Beginning Teacher Induction Program (BTIP) in New Brunswick and the newly introduced New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP) in Ontario

In Canada, where there is no federal Ministry of Education, education and the preparation of teachers is a provincial responsibility. The most common reason cited for new teachers leaving the classroom is lack of support to adjust to the demands of the classroom (Ontario College of Teachers, 2006). The BTIP in New Brunswick began in 1995 and has been evaluated on a yearly basis. The most recent evaluation of the programme, in 2004-2005, involved 336 beginning teachers in 153 schools working with experienced teachers who acted as mentors for the school year. The programme lists the following as its ultimate goals:

• orientation
• support
• acquisition and refinement of teaching skills
• developing a philosophy of education
• self-assessment and self-evaluation
• retention of beginning teachers

Each pair of participants is allocated $500 from the Department of Education to go toward professional development activities for new teachers. Activities may include release time to visit each other's classroom and to engage in meetings to go over report cards and meetings with parents. The Teachers' Association contributes a fixed amount of money to be used when the $500 allocation runs out. The funding is minimal compared with New Zealand funding for induction.

Assessment is not a focal part of the programme and is not related to a teachers' certification or registration. While formal evaluation is not a mandate of the BTIP, the annual evaluations of the programme commonly refer to the controversial nature of evaluation. In the 2004-2005 evaluation of the BTIP, Gill studied the propensity of those being mentored to participate in "high risk activities" as described by Scott in his evaluation of the BTIP programme in 2001. Scott writes:

Both Scott and Gill, in their respective studies, note the tensions surrounding the observation and evaluation of teaching. Interestingly, Scott finds that an alarming percentage of mentors (39.5 percent) in 2001 were unwilling to allow new teachers to observe their teaching. Scott writes:

Gill also stresses the importance of informal evaluation. "Observing other teachers teach and being observed and receiving feedback are important strategies for developing teaching skills and strategies". She goes on to cite Mugglestone (2004) who conducted a follow-up study to the 2003 BTIP. Mugglestone reported that the former beginning teachers, upon reflection, wished they had been observed more and been given more extensive feedback.

The Ontario Ministry of Education introduced a mandatory New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP) in 2006 for its roughly 6,500 new teachers in response to low teacher retention and a climate where new teachers felt overwhelmed. The NTIP funds school boards to develop and implement programs at a board and school level that comprise three key elements: orientation to board and school; professional development on new Ministry initiatives and priorities; and one-on-one mentoring. The NTIP does not stress evaluation as part of its mandate (Ontario College of Teachers, 2006).While mentors are expected to provide feedback and suggestions to new teachers, vice-principals and principals remain responsible for their formal evaluation. The induction programme commenced as a mandatory requirement to be administered by all school boards in the 2006/2007 academic year. The Ministry of Education has also funded a province-wide evaluation of the NTIP which is being conducted by a research team from Ottawa University led by Professor Ruth Kane.

Teacher Induction Scheme, Scotland

Rippon and Martin (2006) describe the new Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS) introduced in 2002, replacing the system that had been in place since 1965. The main intention is to ensure that all new teachers experience consistent induction. Previously teachers may have had a series of short-term appointments which worked against consistency, and it took an average of three and a half years to complete what was then a two-year probationary period (Draper, O'Brien, & Christie, 2004). Since 2002, when teachers graduate from initial teacher education, they are "placed" in schools as "probationer teachers" for a year, on 0.7 of a teaching workload and a slightly reduced salary. The school gets 0.1 time allocation for induction support (Martin & Rippon, 2005). By contrast, in England the division is 90 percent teaching, and 10 percent for professional development (Draper et al., 2004). At the end of the induction period there is no guarantee of a permanent teaching position. Each probationer teacher is assigned an "induction supporter" to carry out support and assessment roles in accordance with guidance provided by the General Teaching Council Scotland. The induction supporter is usually from the same school as the probationer teacher.

Each week the probationer teacher meets with the induction supporter to receive feedback on their progress, and to plan developmental targets. They are formally assessed monthly, against the Standard for Full Registration. The Standard comprises "23 general statements augmented by 96 more specific illustrations of professional practice" (Draper et al., 2004, p. 205).

While the authors are supportive of the intent of the induction scheme, they point out that the changes are structural or procedural and their success depends on the contexts already existing in schools. They quote Flores (2001), who asserts that teachers usually experience individualistic rather than collaborative work cultures, with teachers who are too preoccupied with their own classroom demands to devote much time to support new teachers.

The construction of new teachers as "probationers" who will be around for a short time only also appears to carry risks that they are not treated as having full status in their schools, or are expected to conform to established school norms. They report the experiences of Gemma, a composite identity constructed from accounts of several probationer teachers:

They also comment that in some schools in Scotland, there is reluctance on the part of teachers to work with new teachers and to allow them to observe their teaching. There is no systematic programme of support and training for induction supporters. A weakness of the Scottish system appears to be its reliance on one-to-one mentoring by untrained mentors.

Induction and assessment programmes in Victoria, Australia

Victoria is the only Australian state that directly funds local delivery of induction programmes (Commonwealth Department of Education Science and Training, 2002). In the majority of states, new teachers have the same teaching hours as their experienced colleagues. In Victoria, schools have responsibility for induction, and they are required to link the assessment of "probationary" teachers to school performance management cycles. A "Performance and Development Handbook" includes professional standards for beginning teachers, based on five dimensions of teaching. Nineteen professional standards act as indicators of performance. According to the Department of Education Science and Training publication, An Ethic of Care (2002, pp. 43—44)

New assessment processes for Provisionally Registered Teachers were trialled and evaluated for the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) in 2003 by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) (Kleinhenz & Ingvarson, 2005; Wilkinson, Beavis, Ingvarson, & Kleinhenz, 2005).

As part of the full registration process Provisionally Registered Teachers were required to complete a portfolio with three components: an analysis of teaching and learning; a record of collegial activities; and a list of, and commentary on, professional development activities undertaken. Each of these is discussed below.

An analysis of teaching and learning
This task required the Provisionally Registered Teacher to describe and reflect on a sequence of class lessons, with particular attention to the learning of two representative students. The task had five components:

• establishing the teaching context
• planning a teaching and learning sequence
• providing details of two teaching and learning activities
• an analysis of two students' learning
• a reflection of the teaching and learning process (ACER, 2004, p. 4).

It was suggested that documentation of planning and reflection be about five pages in length, and that it include student work samples.

A record of collegial activities
This task required evidence of classroom-based activities and support from mentors, including at least three classroom observations and feedback, and reflection by Provisionally Registered Teachers on their learning.