Date of Award

4-2008

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Educational Leadership, Research and Technology

First Advisor

Dr. Sue Poppink

Abstract

In this study, I inquired into new public school teachers' perceptions of how well prepared they were during their first year of teaching to handle a range of classroom and discipline situations by examining what percentages of new teachers felt that they were well prepared in classroom management. I also investigated whether there were possible variations in those percentages based on teacher gender, teacher level, and the percentage of minority students enrolled in school. Furthermore, I examined the relationship between new teachers' perceptions on their preparation in classroom management and their job satisfaction as well as their commitment to the teaching profession.

In this study, a new public school teacher was a K-12 teacher in their first, second, or third year of teaching. For this study, I analyzed data extracted from the 1999- 2000 Public School Teacher Questionnaire from the Schools and Staffing Survey which was designed by the National Center for Education Statistics and carried out by the U.S. Census Bureau. A research survey design was used. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the percentages of new teachers' perceptions on their preparation in classroom management through frequency analysis. Inferential statistics with a t-test for Independent Samples were used to compare the mean scores of the new teachers' perceptions to determine if the mean scores varied by teacher gender, teacher level, and the percentage of minority students enrolled in school. Descriptive statistics were used with the Pearson Product Correlation to investigate the relationship between new teachers' perceptions and their job satisfaction as well as their commitment to the teaching profession.

With the results of this study, I hope to add to the national understanding of new teachers during their first year of teaching from the dimension of their perspectives on their preparation in classroom management. I hope the findings provide new information for the K-12 new teacher profile. Last of all, I hope the findings provide information to assist in new teacher preparation and in new teacher support in the teaching profession.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

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