International Survey: How to Support New Teachers

An international survey of 23 OECD countries reports that on average, nearly 10% of teachers in the first 1-3 years of teaching leave the profession altogether.  In an attempt to understand this rate of attrition, the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) asked teachers to report their own feelings of self-efficacy and found that, on average, new teachers report significantly lower levels of perceived self-efficacy than more experienced teachers report.

The TALIS survey also found that other factors that challenge both new and experienced teachers, such as class size, language status, and their students’ socioeconomic backgrounds, are on average the same.

Recommendations to increase retention as a result of these findings include improving classroom climate, offering professional development, and providing feedback on practice to enhance a teacher’s overall feeling of effectiveness. It is also recommended that education systems rethink school organization to lighten the teaching loads of new teachers so that they may have more time for lesson-planning, in-school support, and classroom observation.

A more comprehensive summary of the results from the survey and a review of what they mean in practice can be found in TALIS’s Teaching in Focus brief.  TALIS is the first international survey program to focus on the learning environment and the working conditions of teacher in schools.  Countries and economies volunteer to participate in TALIS.

For More Information:

Teaching in Focus: What Can be Done to Support New Teachers?

[Website] OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey