16 school. Similarly, Pfister 2006 says that besides the classroom-specific and
school problems, novice teachers also face problems with adjusting themselves to new situations.
d. Support for novice teachers
Since beginning teachers face so many problems during their initial years of teaching therefore supports, and guidance need to be provided in order to
rescue them from abandoning their professions. Fox and Singletary 1986 mentions that support is highly needed in this phase in order to confront any
problems which may arise in the classroom and at school. Likewise, Boss 2001 maintains that novice teachers need guidance and support in their initial years of
teaching. Below two constructs or concepts related to support for novice teachers:
1 sources of support and 2 how to support novice language teachers are being reviewed and clarified.
1 Sources of support
During their initial years of teaching, novice teachers need to be supported to pass their crucial period in their career. Working environment, the school where
they work, might be the support provider for novice teachers during their initial years of teaching besides personal support Karatas Karaman, 2013. In their
summary of studies related to novice language teachers, Karatas and Karaman 2013 put mentors and coworkers as the support provided by the school. Then,
the source of personal support could be from novice teachers‟ family and their perceived efficacy.
17
a Mentor
Mentor is more experienced teacher who supports the novice teacher Lindgren, 2004. The mentor and novice teacher or the mentee build a good
relationship upon openness and confidentiality in which the experienced and judicious teacher and the novice meet regularly for discussion according to the
needs of the novice McGee, 2001. Importantly, a mentor is not a problem solver and not a judg
e of the novice‟s problems and opinion Chubbuck, Clift, Allard, and Quinlan, 2001. According to them, the task of the mentor is to support the
learning and reflective process of the novice. Likewise, Lick 1999 and Alred and Garvey 2000 emphasize that mentoring has a special goal to contribute to
learning and thus the novice should be engaged and have a constructive self- awareness in order to make learning happen.
Mentoring a novice teacher is different from supervision a student teacher Lindgren, 2004. The task of the mentor is to listen, to support, and to develop
the thinking of the novice for his or her constructive progress, not telling the right things to do nor the right answer. On the other hand, supervisor has to control the
outcome of the students. Hence, a mentor is required to encourage novice to learn from their own experiences in order to develop a vision of good teaching Feiman-
Nemser, 2001. The mentor who is more experienced than the novice does not necessarily
be a teacher who is way older than the novice. Man and Tang 2012:485 find that younger mentor is “a good source of emotional and practical support and is
perceived as more approachable with more attainable suggestions”. Carter and
18 Francis 2001 in Man and Tang 2012:485 also maintain that young mentor is
“better at emphasizing and recalling what it is like to be a beginning teacher”. Hence, as the alternative, giving two mentors to guide and support the novice is
suggested Man and Tang, 2012. Those two mentors are the experienced mentor playing a more advice giving role and the relatively inexperienced mentor playing
collaborative and empathetic role. Related to the mentoring as the support and guide provided by schools for
their novice teachers, Man and Tang 2012 state that novice teachers need to be given time table which is novice-friendly. It aims to give much time for novice
teachers to observe experienced people‟s classes and learn from them. Besides observing experienced people‟s classes, novice teachers need to be observe too in
order to contribute to novice teachers‟ development not to assess their performance Man and Tang, 2012.
Man and Tang 2012 also mention that principal has a very important function in the process of mentoring novice teachers. If the principal does not
recognize and support the mentors, this may limit mentors‟ effectiveness. In addition to valuing and supporting mentors, the principal should create
opportunities for their training as well. In this way, mentors can contribute to novices‟ development process.
b Coworkers
Colleagues are also the source of support which can be provided to the novice teachers. Brannan and Bleistein 2012 discover that supports from
colleagues are useful for novice teachers. According to them, there are two kinds
19 of support provided by colleagues: 1 pragmatic and 2 affective support.
However, these kinds of supports are difficult to be distinguished. Brannan and Bleistein 2012:531 mention that “sharing ideas about teaching, classroom
management, school policies, or logistics, as well as peer observation and sharing resources” are included to the pragmatic support provided by colleagues. While
affective support are sharing experiences and offering encouragement. Farrell 2012 also emphasizes the role of colleagues in novice teachers‟
adaptation period. Farrell 2012 describes how a director while observing his class stood up and told him he was not teaching correctly. At that time he felt like
going to leave his job because he thought he was not suited to be a language teacher. Fortunately, Farrell 2012 was rescued by his colleagues who acted as
his guides and guardians. His colleagues boosted his morale and provided wise counsel Farrell, 2012:436. From the description of his experience when he was a
novice teacher, Farrell 2012 shows how important support from colleagues is.
c Family
In their study, Brannan and Bleisten 2012 also found that family is one of the support providers for novice teachers. From their study, they reveal that family
helps them to prepare materials for teaching such as purchasing supplies or organizing stapling papers. Furthermore, Brannan and Bleisten 2012 also reveal
that helping a married novice teacher in taking care of the child so that they could work is also kind of helpful support for them.
Similarly, Howard and Johnson 2004 and Day and Gu 2007 also maintain that family is one of support provider for novice teachers to cope with
20 their problems and challenges. According to Howard and Johnson 2004 family
caring aids novice teachers to cope with workplace challenges. Similarly, Day and Gu 2007 f
ind that having a supportive family might enhance teachers‟ capacity
to cope with workplace challenges. d
Perceived efficacy
Self efficacy is the extent to which individuals believe they can organize and execute actions necessary to bring about a desired outcome Bandura, 1997.
Novice teachers‟ self efficacy played an important role in supporting their development as language teachers too Faez and Valeo, 2012. From their study
on 115 novice teachers‟ self efficacy and how it plays a role in supporting their development as language teachers, Faez and Valeo 2012 reveal that novice
teachers‟ self efficacy particularly their perceived efficacy should not be neglected since novice teachers build on their perceived efficacy and it can predict success
and commi tment to work. Hence, novice teachers‟ perceived efficacy as one of
the personal supports should be boosted in order to help novices to cope with problems and challenges during their initial years of teaching and thus they can
perform better in teaching.
2 How to support novice teachers
In order to support novice language teachers, Richards and Farrell 2005 suggest two kinds of strategies to assist novice teachers in dealing with their
problems and retain them in the profession. Those strategies are institutional and individual strategies. The institutional strategies are providing sources for
development, arranging visits to other schools, and providing time for ongoing
21 reflections Richards and Farrell, 2005. According to them, individual strategies
are reflection, self-directed learning, and taking part in teacher support groups. Another way to support novice teachers is by encouraging them to share
the challenges they face in their first years of teaching and tell other people about what the experience Farrell, 2012. Thus, Farrell 2012 encourages second
language educators to collect the stories novice teachers share about their first years of teaching. From what they have collected, a corpus of the story of novice
teachers first years of teaching could be created. This would help novice teachers overcome the challenges they face and reflect on their own teaching experiences
Farrell, 2012. Similarly, Shin 2012 also reveals that by sharing their stories, novice teachers are able to reflect on their own teaching practices and it is
empowering.
2. Primary Level
