| Popis: |
When initially adapting to working at a school, beginner teachers often experience difficulties. Such beginner teachers struggle to adapt to work at school. This problem appears to have worsened recently, with some teachers suffering psychological problems. Thus, it is possible that adapting to working at a school is more difficult now than in the past. This increase in adaptation problems in schools has made it important for elementary school teacher training courses to foster practical teaching skills. The purpose of the research reported here was to determine what types of work cause beginner elementary school teachers difficulties. A second purpose was to determine what improvements teachers hope for in their university classes. The final purpose was to help teachers to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to adapt to work without trouble. A questionnaire survey was completed by elementary school teachers. The results showed that the primary difficulties experienced by teachers were related to (i) teaching methods and skills (40%) , (ii) student guidance (32%) , (iii) class management (17%) , (iv) dealing with parents (16%) , (v) adaptation to the workplace (13%), and (vi) how to advance at work (12%) . The questionnaire was completed by a university lecturer as well as an elementary school teacher. Three issues were mentioned, namely (i) teaching methods and skills (38%) , (ii) student guidance (25%) , and (iii) class management (20%) . The teacher also pointed out that the training at university was insufficient, saying that understanding the content of a lecture is not sufficient for the understanding of content required on site in a school. The present findings suggest that university courses for teachers should focus on teaching methods and skills, as well as issues in student guidance and class management, in order to ensure that teachers can adapt to their teaching site more easily in the future. |
