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Program helps stave teacher haemorrhage

April 18, 2005

Associate Professor Tom MaxwellA pilot program providing teaching graduates with vital support during their first year of teaching has been launched by the University of New England.

The Education Alumni Support Project was implemented after government statistics showed one in four teachers quit within their first year of posting.

About 500 beginning teachers from government, Catholic and private schools are participating in the support project, which offers beginning teachers specialist support in such areas as behaviour management, curriculum development and dealing with “culture shock”.

Many of the teachers’ first postings are in particularly challenging schools, as well as rural and remote schools in western NSW.

The Education Alumni Support Project allows these teachers to talk over their problems with other teachers and UNE lecturers in an online forum.

One of the program’s architects, Associate Professor Tom Maxwell, Head of the School of Education, said the project would help new teachers make the transition from university to the classroom.

“There’s currently a dislocation between universities producing teachers and thrusting them out into schools,” Dr Maxwell said. “This is an attempt by UNE as their alma mater to support beginning teachers as they go out into the field.”

The online forum was the best way of reaching out to the greatest possible number of teachers, Dr Maxwell said. “These beginning teachers are often socially and geographically isolated. Having the program online means they can log on at hours that suit them, when they need help most, and get support from their peers and advice from academics at UNE.”

Dr Howard Smith, the program’s co-creator, said: “It’s about teachers helping teachers. Teaching is a lonely profession. You’re the only adult in the room. It helps to have an on-line forum where you can get things off your chest.”

Dr Smith said many new teachers felt overwhelmed by what was expected from them and that it helped to know that other teachers were going through the same thing.

Behavioural problems among pupils were a particular cause of distress, Dr Smith said. “I had a phone call the other day from a girl who couldn’t even get through calling the roll, because kids were jumping out of their seats and climbing the walls,” he said. Teachers who participated in the project were given specific strategies for dealing with unruly behaviour such as refusal to sit down and talking out of turn, he said.

The program has the support of the Department of Education, Science and Training, which has given UNE a Higher Education Innovation Program (HEIP) grant to fund the program through its first year. Dr Maxwell said he hoped the project would be a success, and that funding would be ongoing. But even if only a handful of extra teachers stayed on because of the program it would have been worthwhile, he said.

For more information phone Dr Maxwell on 6773 2583 or Leon Braun on 6773 3771.

Posted by Leon Braun at April 18, 2005 02:47 PM