Conceptualizing Novice Teachers' Professional Development: A Base for Supervisory Interventions.

In this paper a conceptual framework is presented which describes the various dimensions and factors that constitute the processes of a beginning teacher's professional development during preservice and the induction period. The frame in question is based on data resulting from earlier research and on a broad study of recent literature. The model contains three dimensions: the personal dimension, which comprises issues that relate to a teacher's development as a person; the knowledge and skills dimension, which comprises issues that relate to the development of a teacher's content knowledge and professional knowledge and skills; and the ecological dimension, which comprises issues that relate to the environment in which teacher development is taking place. The personal dimension covers issues such as becoming mature, emotions, the development of knowledge about self, and the use of oneself as an instrument. The knowledge and skills dimension covers elements such as the development of academic and pedagogical content knowledge, the development of classroom management skills, and the development of pedagogical and teaching skills. The ecological dimension comprises all the issues that are related to the socialization of teachers in a certain school context, e.g., adaptation to a certain school culture, meeting the demands of colleagues, school administrators, parents and the like. The content of each of the issues is illustrated with data gained from research. The last section briefly discusses some implications for supervisory interventions. (Contains 40 references.) (Author/ND)