Which needs should be emphasized to help novice teachers? The findings of a qualitative-quantitative study in primary schools of Tehran

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the needs of novice teachers and its questions are formulated based on action- reactions and novice teachers’ communications in schools in five subscales, including the management and school structure, students and classes, co-workers, training guide and parents. For a deep and thorough response to these questions, “mixed exploratory “research method was used and study was conducted in two quantitative and qualitative stages. In the qualitative stage, initially, 25 semi-structured interviews were carried out using purposive sampling. In quantitative stage, using 250 markers that were identified by interviews and examining study background, the researcher made questionnaire was formulated including 112 questions in part A. Then, a total of 447 questionnaires were given novice teachers, using “available” sampling and two methods of presence and email that among them 371 questionnaires were received. Findings suggest that there is statistically significant difference between the questions average ratings for each of study’s 5 sub-scales. Then in subscales of management and school structure, the administrators ’ support from teachers against the parents; in students and class subscale, using the examples in teaching, mastery of course content and classroom management; in subscale of colleagues, equal responsibility of teachers with experienced colleagues and teachers; in subscale of training guide, teacher's difficulty perceived by guide and in subscale of parents, tracking the status of students are the most important needs of teachers. Among the five main components, the greatest need was in the context of classroom and students. The results are consistent with the findings of valid researches in this area. In addition, the amount of questions fitting of each subscale with model is acceptable.