- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 1758385
- First Name Elizabeth
- Last Name Edmondson
- Institution Virginia Commonwealth University
- Role/Position Principal Investigator
- Proposal Type Workshop
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience STEM Education (general)
- Target Audience Co-PIs, Noyce Master Teachers, Noyce Teaching Fellows, Other Faculty/Staff, Project PIs, Undergraduate and/or Graduate Noyce Scholars
- Topics Developing Teacher Leaders
Goals
Participants of this workshop will: 1- learn about the VCU Noyce Induction program that has used two protocols with our Track 1 graduates for over 14 years, 2- experience each of the two protocols (modified for time), and 3- learn about the rationale behind their use and induction teacher’s feedback.
Evidence
The two-year VCU induction model has been very successful with at least 83% of the completing scholars attending at least one session. The novice teachers believe the sessions are helpful and that they learn from their colleagues through the protocols. Areas that the novice teachers struggle with include classroom management, student work ethic post COVID, student honesty on assignments, working with diverse students who are different from them, and lack of school leadership support. Modifications have been made over the years to meet the teacher’s needs. In the 1990s, the School Reforms Initiative found that teacher discussions and collaborations needed support; using earlier prototypes, protocols for these types of interaction were designed (McDonald et al., 2013). Protocols provide a set of steps for participants and a facilitator. When some of the protocols were established in the 1990s, the goal was to help facilitate discussions and work toward equity (McDonald et al., 2013). Now, protocols have been useful for teachers to use during Professional Learning Community (PLC) time and Professional Development sessions. The use of protocols has been found to facilitate challenging conversations and to lead to improvement in teacher practice (Easton, 2009). Protocols shared by McDonald et al. (2013) include providing all participants time to think, talk, and receive different types of feedback.
Descriptive Consultancy: Problems Presented and Discussed 1. Students (apathy, no grit, attendance, cheating,/photomath, engaging MLL), 2. Classroom Management (discipline, detention, lab behaviors, phone use), 3. Leadership (not supportive, poor communication), 4. Curriculum/Resources (lack of, unreasonable pacing guides, IB program expectations and time), 5. Colleagues (not willing to share, controlling when/how taught), 6. Parents (not responsive, laying blame of Teacher, time to make all of the calls).
Success Protocol: Strategies Shared 1. Instructional Approaches (scavenger hunts, anchor charts, domino cards, chart paper synthesis, reflection after assessment, and lock boxes), 2. Technology Applications(especially during COVID: Nearpod, Jamboard, Whiteboard, Wholeboard, Google Earth, ArcGIS Storymaps), 3. Content Delivery (mini-labs, claim-evidence-reasoning for a simulation)
Reflections on the Model: “I came to the induction meetings to talk with other teachers and to share my experiences as well as hearing about other people’s experiences so I could learn from theirs and also get another viewpoint of what is out there in the profession.” “For me personally, it was the problem-solving activities that were most beneficial just because I think we all kind of struggle, at least in the first year, maybe even second year, with some of the classroom management issues that were brought up and just hearing somebody else’s perspective on it can be refreshing.” “And I will say that the attendance payment was an incentive as well to come, but I did enjoy talking to everyone, and even though, like we had less people this year, I think I still got a lot out of meetings.” “My reasons for attending the meetings, so this is my second year, so I just wanted to give like the same support that I feel like the people that came before me gave, um, kind of gain like more insight from my peers.”
Proposal
VCU Noyce Track 1 Phase III incorporates a monthly induction meeting model to support and retain our Noyce novice teachers. These efforts are critical for these teachers when working in stressful schools, including high-needs schools. Two protocols, Descriptive Consultancy (Problem-solving) and Success designed by McDonald et al., 2013, have been used with 14 cohorts of former scholars to provide an avenue for problem-solving issues of practice, sharing successful strategies, and networking with colleagues. These protocols serve as a mechanism for organized and thoughtful sharing and reflection by the novice teachers and others in attendance. The two-year VCU induction model has been very successful with at least 83% of the completing scholars attending at least one session. The novice teachers believe the sessions are helpful and that they learn from their colleagues through the protocols. Some of the areas that the novice teachers struggle with include classroom management, student work ethic pre and post COVID, student honesty on assignments, working with diverse students who are different from themselves, and a lack of school leadership support.
