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Over the past thirty years, numerous studies confirmed that new teachers do not have the requisite knowledge to understand the complex interrelationships among management, behavior, and academic tasks. An important missing piece in the literature is how the concerns of experienced teachers differ from those cited by beginning teachers.
Based on previous research, this study compares beginning and experienced teachers' concerns with respect to managing classroom behavior, dealing with time constraints and work load, parent interactions, and academic preparation. This paper examines these complex relationships by comparing a national sample of beginning teachers to a national cross-section of experienced teachers to ascertain if beginning teachers' concerns diminish with experience.
Significant differences were found on the Classroom Management and Parent Interaction scales while no differences were found on the Academic Preparation and Time Management scales.
This study points to a number of issues important to teacher educators responsible for preparing candidates for initial certification as well as to school district personnel responsible for mentoring new teachers and strengthening professional development for in-service teachers.
Theoretical Framework
Three in-depth reviews of thie literature offer a comprehensive examination of preservice to inservice teacher transition over the past thirty years. Veenman (1984) analyzed eighty-three international empirical studies to identify the most serious problems of beginning teachers. A problem was defined as a difficulty that beginning teachers encounter in the performance of their work, which hinders the achievement of intended goals. Beginning teachers were defined as teachers who had not yet completed three years of teaching after receiving initial teacher certification. Veenman culled fifteen of the most serious problems and classified and rank ordered them according to tiieir importance. The eight most serious problems that new teachers reported in order of importance were as follows: classroom discipline, motivating pupils, dealing with individual differences, assessing pupils' work, relations with parents, organization of class work, insufficient materials and supplies, and dealing with problems of individual pupils. The next seven in rank order were as follows: heavy teaching load resulting in insufficient preparation time; relations with colleagues; planning of lessons and schooldays; effective use of different teaching methods; awareness of school policies and rules; determining learning level of students; and tied for fifteenth knowledge of subject matter, burden of clerical work, and...