Supporting Novice Science Teachers through Online Induction: Lessons Learned from the Pilot Year

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1 Supporting Novice Science Teachers through Online Induction: Lessons Learned from the Pilot Year Joel D. Donna Doctoral Candidate, Science Education University of Minnesota Gillian H. Roehrig, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Science Education University of Minnesota The retention of highly effective teachers has been a topic of concern among policy makers, professional organizations, teacher educators, and schools. Studies suggest that teachers may leave the profession at rates of up to 50% within the first 5years of their practice (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004). These high rates of attrition have caused shortages of qualified teachers in some regions of the country. As it is generally agreed that teachers become more proficient as they progress throughout their career, students in districts with high levels of attrition suffer the most as they have larger numbers of novice teachers. For science education, the need for qualified teachers is more acute. Ingersoll's (2003) study found that science and math teachers left teaching at relatively higher rates than other teachers and are significantly more likely to leave for reasons of job dissatisfaction. Induction programs have been offered as a potential alleviation of some aspects of job satisfaction by offering support in the tenuous years of teachers development and helping them transition from a student of teaching to a teacher of students (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004, p. 683). Teacher induction programs usually include mentorship from a seasoned veteran and may vary in length of program support, training for mentors, professional development activities, and collaboration with peers. Review of research data (Wojnowski, Bellamy, & Cooke, 2003) has supported the idea that induction programs can help improve novices teaching practices, can lower attrition rates, as well as have benefits to the mentor as well. It may be a difficult challenge to provide high levels of induction support both financially and logistically. Although many schools have mentoring programs, not all science teachers are matched with a mentor who teaches the same science discipline. In some cases they may be matched with a mentor outside of science. Luft (2003) and others (Wojnowski, Bellamy, & Cooke, 2003) have spoken of the importance of having a subject-specific mentor and science-specific induction programs to support these novice science teachers. These mentors may be best at helping these novices develop greater pedagogical content knowledge. Finding these mentors may be difficult in small charter and rural schools because these teachers may be the only science teacher of their kind. Having a well-prepared mentor, who teaches science in similar contexts (e.g., students, subjects, grades), may be one of the more powerful combatants in science teacher attrition. Online induction programs can help to solve the problem of providing subject specific support. Online induction programs can help connect science teachers with subject specific mentors where face-to-face communication may not be possible. Online induction programs may also help to connect teachers from across the country to a community of peers where they can share their perspectives through contact, discussion boards, and other distance technologies like synchronous chat rooms. These online induction programs can also be used to provide targeted professional development and resources for their specific subjects. In many cases, online induction programs can be used to supplement existing school based induction programs by providing additional levels of support that are targeted to the needs of science teachers. The New Teacher Center s large-scale online induction program, emss (electronic mentoring for science success) is a good example of a large-scale online induction program; however, there has been very limited research from this program.nevertheless, anecdotal evidence as well as unpublished 1

2 dissertations (Bice, 2006) and conference presentations (Grimberg, 2006; McAlleer, 2006; Taylor & Mike, 2006) generally lend support to the program goals for the development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as well as developing reflective, problem solvers. STEMMP This paper will examine STEMMP (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Mentorship Program) for non-tenured teachers in Minnesota, developed for the school year. In particular, this paper will address program goals and the activities and technologies used to support them, explain program effectiveness using early evaluation and usage data, elucidate barriers towards success, and offer suggestions to improve the program. STEMMP is an online induction program that uses the Moodle platform. Currently, there are 62 active mentor/mentee pairs. Over half of the mentees teach science; the rest are a combination of math and technology teachers. STEMMP is funded through the Minnesota Department of Education. The goal of the program is to increase the retention of highly qualified teachers in the state of Minnesota and to increase novice teacher performance. To combat job dissatisfaction caused by isolation and a lack of support STEMMP utilizes both synchronous and asynchronous technologies to connect novice teachers with content specific mentors. In addition, STEMMP connects these novice teachers to a community of their peers. Activities targeted towards the needs of novice teachers are also provided to help improve problem solving and pedagogical content knowledge. There are both private and public places for discussion on the site where teachers may request help. However, the public spaces for help and idea sharing have had limited use as the mentors have been a primary resource. Mentees and mentors have weekly discussions through the chat feature of the site. While chat is preferred, mentees and mentors may also contact each other through private forums. They may also contact each other by , phone, or face-to-face communication, although these practices are not encouraged in order to promote the use of the site as a place to build community. Early data show that chat rooms are the most common form of weekly contact, followed closely by . This finding is interesting because the use of is discouraged in this program. Mentees and mentors are also put into small learning communities (SLC). The SLC groups range in size from 5 to 15. Careful attention was made to develop a sense of community and a climate of trust among these groups at the initial face-to face-training for mentors and mentees before moving to an online environment. On the site, participants interact with these SLC groups in both the help forums as well as monthly in an asynchronous group chat. In the early stages of the program, the SLC group forums have been used for little more than a way to contact the group to arrange a common time for the online meeting. It has been very difficult to arrange common times to chat and as a result the attendance at the meetings has been lacking. Initial rationale for such group chats was for a way to develop community and provide a real-time sounding board for mentees to check in with each other and provide feedback. Mentors were to lurk and monitor conversation and offer occasional support. Mentor evaluations have called for additional structure to these meetings in order to foster more purposeful feedback. Mentees also complete three Professional Development Inquiries (PDI), which are investigations into novices practice. They work on these activities with assistance of the mentor and their peers in order to use best practices and theory to improve their instruction. The PDIs are designed to promote refection and problem solving in hopes that novices will become more adaptive experts that use the knowledge base for teaching in their practice in ways that make sense in their contexts. It is also hoped that through reflection, that teachers will continually improve their practice. The first PDI is on lesson planning. Each PDI asks novices to reflect on their current practice, plan to adapt their practice using online resources, readings, and help from their mentor and peers, put their work into their current teaching, and then to reflect on its 2

3 successes and struggles. In addition, some inquires ask participants to use student data to help in their reflection. They have similar formats that use mainly asynchronous forums for discussion of bi-monthly topics and are conducted in a separate area of the site. The PDI activities have been a struggle for the mentees to complete for around 50% of the participants. Although the activities were introduced at the face-to-face meeting and the participants were scaffolded into the PDI environment at the meeting, there has been some confusion as to the expectations and timing of such activities. In addition, the goal of fostering community through the peer feedback activities has been difficult because many have posted responses in wrong areas. In many cases, the mentors and mentees discuss the activities as part of their weekly chat. Although the flexibility to discuss parts of the PDI in different areas of the program was offered, this may have caused additional confusion to the participants and may have limited initial participation. In addition, the lack of mentee time during their first years of teaching may have limited participation in this initial PDI. Also, some mentees were not required to participate in the PDI activities because they are enrolled in a course for credit that only uses a part of the program and this caused some confusion as to who was required to participate and who was not. By extending the deadlines, clarifying guidelines, preparing weekly reminders, and limiting the requirements, the participation in the activities has increased slightly. The next PDI will be redesigned to have clearer expectations and timelines, more input and flexibility to meet mentors and mentees needs, and larger amounts of time between activities in order to increase meaningful participation. Mentee reflection blog entries are also required weekly. These are designed to help the mentees reflect on their practice and as a way for mentors to better understand the needs of the mentee. They can also be useful conversation starters for the discussions. There is also a wiki for mentees and mentors to work collaboratively and to share resources with the larger community. As there was limited training provided for this during the face-to-face meetings, the use of this technology has been limited. Barriers and Lessons Learned With all new educational technologies and innovations, there are both internal and external hurdles to overcome (Ertmer, 1999). During this pilot period of the STEMMP program, there have been many issues in regards to both the technology and program design. This section will help to elucidate some of the barriers faced by the participants and offer some lessons learned. Early lessons learned include more careful selection and training of mentors. Mentors who have struggled to learn and to use the technology have been a hindrance for mentees receiving support. Additional faceto-face and online training are warranted. In addition, more focus on training in how to become a supportive mentor in an online environment who can help novices become better problem solvers will be recommended for future training. For mentors and some mentees who did not attend face-to-face training, the participation has been very limited. Participation in training is very important for program success. A barrier for both mentees and mentors has been the access to the technology. Some have struggled to interact with the site through home dial-up connections; many mentors and mentees do not have time during the school day to access the site and wish to participate from home. In some cases, participants may not own a computer at home. Dial-up connections, particularly in rural areas where high-speed access is limited, have been a difficult hurdle. Also, Moodle works best on computers that run FireFox. Encouraging installation of the browser has been difficult for some who have older computers or do not have administrative privileges that would allow installation. Future versions of Moodle may correct other browser issues, but the barriers towards access are difficult issues. While it is cost prohibitive for the program to provide home access for all participants, perhaps offering discounts through dial-up and highspeed providers as well as access to low cost computers may help ease entry into this program. Additionally, the motivations for participation in the program seem to be related to the perceived benefits or barriers towards participation. Unlike some induction programs, mentees do not receive a stipend for 3

4 their participation. Unless they have registered credit and have paid the substantial fees, there are limited ways to require participation in this program. In addition, some mentees already have mentors in their district. Finding ways to supplement the mentees face-to-face induction with this online program will be a goal for the redesign of this program. An additional barrier may be that some mentees have entered this program only because of the credit opportunity or because their administrator requested their presence. They may not believe that they want or can receive help in an online environment. Understanding their motivations for participation will be critical for both the mentors and for the program design. Moodle allows for notification of posts to forums. However, if mentees or mentors reply through their client, no record of this conversation will be logged nor will it help redirect them to the site. This may hinder others from accessing the same advice or resources. Some mentors and many mentees have restricted notification and this may have limited participation as well. By initially subscribing participants to certain boards, disabling un-subscription from critical access boards, may help. In addition, having facilitators for each of the content areas and each of the SLC may help to provide a stable resource person who can also help to foster dialog among members and handle logistics. These facilitators could also be active in a construction of a better wiki page. Additionally, as reported EMSS, many students see this program as primarily a way to receive resources and curricular help (Griberg, 2006). Online induction environments such as STEMMP can provide timely access to vetted mentors and peers resources and ideas; however, they may not help develop PCK or encourage problem solving and reflective practice. In addition, it is unclear as to how this program can better help the mentees use the theory learned in their pre-service teaching coursework to solve their current problems. The EMSS program uses dilemmas to encourage more reflective discourse focuses on problem solving. These dilemmas are short, relevant scenarios in which the mentees can offer suggestions as to how to solve the problems. Carefully selecting PDI activities, providing more structure in the discussions between mentors and mentees and within SLC chats, and using dilemmas may help to meet these ends. Future technologies may also help to alleviate the barriers faced. Chats maybe better facilitated through services like Skype. In addition, private, secure Webcam broadcasts of mentee classrooms could help mentors better advise their mentees. Also, more collaborative open-source packages like Lemill may replace wikis as a place to find, share, and develop learning resources. The final barrier of limited time for novices is more difficult to address. Many of the mentees in this project are teaching out of their content area, are teaching multiple courses, and are struggling with balancing personal time. Mentors report that mentees are currently overwhelmed and cannot find time and energy to participate. This may severely limit activities like blogging, adding to the wiki, or even using the site to ask for help. By differentiating requirements for the first, second, and third year teachers, as well as providing more scaffolding into the program through limited initial activities may help solve this problem. However, limiting the number of mentee contact hours may be the most successful strategy for increasing participation in such activities. References Bice, L. (2005) The construction of knowledge about teaching practice and educating students from diverse cultures in an online induction program. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Montana State University, Bozeman. Ertmer, P. A. (1999). Addressing first and second order barriers to change: Strategies for technology integration. Educational Technology Research and Development, 47(4), Grimbrug, B. (2006, April). The structure of teacher s online discourses. Paper presented at the meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, San Francisco. 4

5 Ingersoll, R. M. (2003). Turnover and shortages among science and mathematics teachers in the United States. In J. Rhoton & P. Bowers (Eds.), Science teacher retention (pp. 1-12). Arlington, VA: NSTA Press. Luft, J. A. (2003). Induction programs for science teachers: What the research says. In J. Rhoton & P. Bowers (Eds.), Science teacher retention (pp ). Arlington, VA: NSTA Press. McAleer, D (2006, April). Coding Dialogue at the individual post level in the content oriented discussion areas in an online mentoring program. Paper presented at the meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, San Francisco. Smith, T. M., & Ingersoll, R. M. (2004). What are the effects of induction and mentoring on beginning teacher turnover? American Educational Research Journal, 41(3), Taylor, P., & Mike, A. (2006, April). An examination of the effect of facilitation training on the improvement of dialogue quality in the electronic mentoring for student success program: addendum- another year of analysis. Paper presented at the meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, San Francisco. Wojnowski, B. S., Bellamy, M. L., & Cooke, S. (2003). A review of literature on the mentoring and induction of beginning teachers with an emphasis on the retention and renewal of science teachers. In J. Rhoton & P. Bowers (Eds.), Science teacher retention (pp ). Arlington, VA: NSTA Press. Biographical Sketches Joel Donna is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Minnesota in Science Education. He is passionate about teaching and working to improve science education. Joel s research interests include supporting teachers with induction programs, incorporating technology into reform based teacher education, and construction of education communities and knowledge bases through Web 2.0 technologies. Address: University of Minnesota - Department of Curriculum and Instruction 159 Pillsbury Drive S.E. Minneapolis, MN donna010@umn.edu URL: Phone: Fax: Gillian Roehrig researches issues related to the preparation and retention of secondary science teachers. Her research agenda is focused on the constraints experienced by these beginning teachers as they implement inquiry-based instruction in their classrooms and how these constraints can be mitigated through participation in science-focused induction programs. Address: University of Minnesota - Department of Curriculum and Instruction 159 Pillsbury Drive S.E. Minneapolis, MN roehr013@umn.edu URL: Phone: Fax: