Becoming a teacher: teachers' experiences of initial teacher training, induction and early professional development: final report

The Becoming a Teacher (BaT) study, a six-year longitudinal research project (2003-2009), set out to explore beginner teachers' experiences of initial teacher training (ITT), induction and early professional development in England, including: the reasons that some did not complete their ITT, others completed ITT but did not take up a teaching post, and others took up a teaching post but subsequently left the profession; and the extent to which beginner teachers' experiences of ITT, induction and early career progression, and their retention or attrition, were subject to variation relating to the ITT route that they followed, encompassing university-administered undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, employment-based and school-based programmes. The BaT research shows that the experience of becoming and being a teacher is invariably an intensely demanding and challenging one, which can be a source of great reward, satisfaction and enjoyment on the one hand, yet a source of frustration and unhappiness on the other. Over the course of the study, three key, common factors were found to be associated with beginner teacher enjoyment, retention and perceived effectiveness, with beginner teachers more likely to 'strongly enjoy' teaching, more likely to perceive themselves as 'very effective' and more likely to complete their ITT and remain in teaching where: they felt 'very well' supported by (for example) mentors and other teacher colleagues; they reported 'very good' relationships with pupils and did not regard the behaviour of the pupils they taught as problematic or unacceptable; and they indicated that they had a manageable workload and a healthy or acceptable worklife balance.

Excerpt from published executive summary. Show less