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The teacher induction program is designed at the Territory and divisional levels and its implementation supervised at the regional level. Both divisions have human resource positions responsible for developing and implementing basic orientation. Orientation recall in Operations South is also designed by the human resources management staff. The orientation programs in both divisions are evaluated annually. All new teachers complete an evaluation on each session and the overall program at basic and orientation recalls. Central-office staff in both divisions participate in planning meetings to revise (Operations North) and refine (Operations South) basic orientation. In addition, Operations South surveys school principals regarding what they want covered at basic and orientation recall.
Peer probation is developed at the Territory level with input provided by a committee from the divisions. The teachers' union also collaborates in formulating and implementing peer probation policies and procedures.
The basic structure of both orientation and peer assessment have remained constant. Over the years, the basic orientation has increasingly focused on cultural awareness in Operations South. The desire and need to provide greater attention to cultural awareness is not always matched by an ability to provide such training. It has not been easy to provide orientation on Aboriginal culture. Currently, they have an Aboriginal consultant and her non-Aboriginal spouse (an Operations South School Support Services Officer) qualified and effectively providing cultural awareness training.
All presenters at the basic and orientation recall in Operations South are provided training on how to make effective presentations. The central office also has prepared an in-service handbook on dos and don'ts for effective training.
The cost of providing orientation in Operations South was US$18,000, not counting staff time. This comes to US$428 per participant. The major cost is participant accommodations for attending basic and orientation recall in Alice Springs. The second largest expenditure is for social events. No estimate has ever been attempted of the cost of staff time for orientation, peer probation, or support services. Participation on the part of central-office staff, principals, senior teachers, and peer teachers are viewed as part of one's job. Only in the PSAT program are mentors paid for their services. For the mentors in PSAT, mentoring is their full-time job.
DEET initially funded orientation and recall. In recent years, the funds have come principally from the NT Department of Education, with small supplementation by the division (for orientation and recall) and schools (for in-services).
The use of ratings for the midterm assessment is being reevaluated. Rural teachers, in particular, compare scores on the scales. In the review of the probation process and documentation, particularly for the mid-term assessment, Operations South stated a preference for a "Successful/Unsuccessful" classification. It also preferred continuation of the past practice that if a probationer was rated "Unsuccessful" and, depending on the reasons for such a classification, a program of additional support was implemented and probation often extended. Operations North wanted to retain the current format of a scale with five categories. The result of the review is that the rating scale will be retained.
There also is interest, on the part of some program developers and central-office staff to rename peer probation as peer support in order to convey, in a less threatening way, its fundamental nature. The fundamental support and development components of the process will be reinforced if the proposal to rename the process "peer support" rather than "peer probation" is accepted.
Other areas where new recruits would like more emphasis include how to use Aboriginal assistant teachers, more in-depth coverage of current basic orientation topics by expanding basic orientation to two weeks, more time spent working with other new teachers in small groups (the current program is too rushed), and exposure to "real situations" through school visits. Training in how to make the best use of their Aboriginal assistant teachers would increase a new teacher's effectiveness. So far, there is no workshop on cross-cultural team work, and new teachers and their assistant teachers do not participate in joint in-service training. This also appears to be an area where there is limited school support. According to several new teachers, their inability to use Aboriginal assistants relates to "their own lack of confidence in their abilities and also concern not to offend." At the same time that new teachers are trying to figure out what to do, they are also expected to work with an assistant teacher. Teachers in bilingual programs must effectively use the Aboriginal assistant who speaks the local language. In schools implementing an English-as-a-second-language curriculum where the new teacher and Aboriginal assistant teachers do not have the pressure to bond, some relationships are ineffective even at the end of the school year.
However, before requests were made during the preparation of this case study, data were not collected and analyzed to determine if retention has improved with the introduction of teacher induction. Unfortunately, data going back to the beginning of the program are not available. Therefore, the determination of success is based on several experienced informants' impressions and statistical data for the past five years.
In addition, a professor at Monash University (in Victoria) who has sent students to the NT for practicums for several years has proposed that the NT conduct a three-year longitudinal study of new teachers. This study would begin in 1996 or 1997.
Since some of the new recruits have children, it is to be expected that as their children become school-age (or secondary-school age) their parents will request transfers to urban schools where their children will attend schools with both non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal students.
Teachers share the feeling that the teacher induction program has increased their chances of staying in teaching at their NT school. "Many won't survive without it"; "helped to bridge the millennium gap"; "orientation gave me an immediate support group that was even more important than content"; "gave me confidence; I applied the healthy kid program shown at orientation to great success" are comments expressed by new teachers. New teachers who started after orientation sense that they have missed something extremely useful.
With few exceptions, new teachers feel that the peer probation program is useful and successful. Only in rare cases where the new teacher and senior teacher have either a personality clash or different philosophies of teaching was peer probation viewed negatively. In one case where the panel was reconfigured, "the swap was handled promptly and professionally," said the new teacher. "It showed that they were interested in me, not protecting the system." Everyone recognizes that mentoring/advising works best when the teacher selects the mentor. In urban and larger rural schools, teacher selection of informal mentors reinforces the formal teacher induction program. In smaller, rural schools everyone has to be able to get along.
School support was viewed as helping the new teachers come to terms with the "overwhelming nature of what needed to be done." Many new teachers found principals and senior teachers extremely useful in advising them on classroom management and behavior management. Advice was provided about dealing with runaways, how Aboriginal children learn, and cultural taboos to avoid.
As one principal noted, the NT teacher induction program "provides a good framework for taking people on a personal journey.... Everything helps, but initial social contact is critical."
Program developers also believe that the teacher induction program provides new teachers an appropriate introduction to the school system. Concrete information about norms, procedures, and ways to improve new teachers' knowledge, skill, and performance are systematically conveyed to most recruits early in the year. During the remaining year, new teachers are continually encouraged to reflect on the application of and transition from theory to practice and on preparation for assessment. The latter is supported primarily by providing informal feedback on performance.
In summary, new teachers, program developers, and program deliverers perceive that the NT does a good job of easing the transition from student of teaching to teacher of students.
An exceptionally large percentage of teachers in the NT do not begin teaching at the beginning of the school term. In many of the past 20 years, the applicant pool for teaching in bush schools has been insufficient. As teaching jobs in the rest of Australia decline (as least temporarily), the NT may be able to fill more jobs at the beginning of the school year. However, variations in enrollments, particularly in rural schools, are often not known until the school year begins. Also, resignations midterm and illness require continual hiring throughout the year. With the exception of one year (when two basic orientations were held) in Operations South, late starters do not receive basic orientation; and if they start after week six, they do not receive orientation recall until their second year (for rural teachers). Funds are not available for a basic orientation later in the year. The most problematic area for teachers missing basic orientation is the lack of training in cultural awareness.
The teacher induction program serves both rural and urban teachers. However, its philosophy and design are tilted towards assisting new rural teachers. Numerous urban teachers, while enjoying basic orientation, did not see much of the program as relevant to them. Rural schools tend to have homogeneous student populations; many urban schools have heterogenous student populations. While Aborigines are the largest minority group in urban schools, Darwin, in particular, also has a large Asian population. The implementation of peer probation also differs for rural and urban teachers. Many urban teachers were barely aware of the panel meetings. "We met twice for ten minutes," was a typical urban teacher's experience. Panels in urban areas may have a lower profile because the urban context allows for almost continuous informal observation and discussion -- and formal responses if deemed necessary by supervisors. In the bush, panels involve staff from other sites and may include senior officers for the Alice Springs and Barkly Education Offices. This may create a greater focus on the panel process for bush teachers. The different levels of attention paid to probation, by those involved in it, is a reflection of the significantly different personal and professional contexts in urban, rural, and remote areas.
Since the program is designed and implemented primarily at the division and regional level, other variations exist. Operations South provides considerably more support to its rural teachers than Operations North. While this gap appears to be narrowing, it still exists. Also, variations exist among urban schools in the amount of school support. For example, not all new teachers had knowledge of or attended urban recall in Operations South. In most schools, they had regular meetings with senior teachers and other team members; in other schools, they received minimal school support.
New teachers in the NT report very infrequent contact with their preservice training institutions. This is not surprising given that most new teachers are relocating out of their native states. However, new teachers training at the Northern Territory University have similar experiences. Maintaining contact with recent graduates is not a faculty priority. The potential benefit of continuing contact with teacher-training institutions is not being tapped. NTU now is embarking on a new program philosophy that will increase the linkages between themselves and students. While this change may increase contact with new teachers at urban schools, it is uncertain whether new teachers in rural schools will see much additional contact with faculty members. Contact with new teachers in rural and remote areas is hampered by the lack of housing to accommodate visiting faculty. Also, students can choose where they do their practice teaching. Most NTU students have no intention of teaching in rural schools.
Another possible way of increasing contact between new teachers and faculty is for faculty members to participate in peer probation. However, currently, only employees of the NT Education Department can participate as members of peer probation panels.
In urban schools, the school-based component is often the responsibility of the senior teacher or another designated mentor. While most of these individuals are considered to be doing an effective job, areas for improvement exist. The need for additional training for mentors, especially in urban schools where continual monitoring by the central office does not occur, is recognized by program developers as an important unmet need.
The Territory is beginning to implement a performance-management system of appraisal for all employees. It is probable that teachers, along with all staff, will now be appraised annually for as long as they remain employed by the NT. The relationship between peer probation and appointment and the new performance-management system remains to be worked out.
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[Chapter 3 (part 5 of 5)]