Date of Award

1994

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Master of Education

School

School of Education

Faculty

Faculty of Education

First Supervisor

Dr Neil Stewart

Second Supervisor

Norm Hyde

Abstract

The survey study was primarily exploratory and descriptive in nature and attempted to report on the perceptions of beginning teachers entering the Catholic primary schools in Western Australia in 1991. Their perceptions on the form of induction they received, and how their pre-service teacher education equipped them for this transition were attained. In addition, data from Catholic primary school principals, Catholic Education Office of Western Australia administrators and teacher institutions administrators were collected in relation to perceptions of the transitions from teacher training to teacher employment. The main sources of data collection were questionnaires and interviews. The data collated indicated that most principals and administrators support the conclusions expressed in the literature that most graduates are satisfactorily prepared for the teaching role. However, this is only the start of an ongoing process of pre-service, induction and professional development. Few of the beginning teachers in the population were given any concessions in their initial months of teaching and few received an effective, ongoing induction plan to ease them into their teaching careers. The literature on induction is prescribed to support the importance of developing school based comprehensive induction plans for the beginning teachers who enter the workforce each year. Finally, based on the results of the survey study and literature, a framework of a model for induction was prescribed to assist in the development of a comprehensive, system based induction policy for Western Australian Catholic primary school.

Share

 
COinS