AN INVESTIGATION OF SUPPORT MEASURES FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS IN EU COUNTRIES AND TURKEY

Abstract

The common qualification for entry to teaching profession across Europe is a bachelor’s degree which generally last between four and five years, however initial teacher education is usually not sufficient for new teachers as they may experience and encounter problems about teaching, assessing and managing the students. Therefore, in almost more than the half of the European countries a structured induction program is carried out or other support measures are provided for new teachers. Few countries do not organize these programs at national level but at the local level or in schools. The structured induction programs are considered as a compulsory phase ending with a kind of overall assessment in most countries, whereas in some of them it is optional. These induction programs last from several months to 2 years, but the widespread length is about one year. The types of support measures for beginning teachers have been found to be differed across Europe, and mentoring is the most common form among these measures. Accordingly, this paper investigates the support measures for beginning teachers and elaborates on mentoring practices in European primary and secondary education institutions and finally discusses induction practices in Turkey comparatively.