Abstract:

The issue of beginning teachers is an essential concern for the institutions involved in their initial training and their employment. The development of an instrument to measure the graduates level adaptation to the school work can help understand the mechanisms involved in this process and provides essential clues about factors that can be manipulated to achieve a higher adaptation level over a shorter period.

The first step in this instrument design was to review the conclusions acquired from direct observations, research conducted on previous generations of graduates, and recent information from the literature. For example, in the first years of professional practice, teachers indicated problems in communication with parents, communication with colleagues and school directory, classroom discipline, inadequate guidance and support, limited physical resources in the school environment, lack of experience, and even bureaucracy.

After item pool construction, a scale trial form was developed and applied to the last five years of graduates from Adventus University. Items analysis, exploratory factorial analysis and reliability analysis led to items selection and final design. The results allow the obtained multidimensional Likert Scale to measure the level of adaptation of beginning teachers in the first years of teaching, but future research needs to continue its development.

Keywords:

Beginner teacher, instrument validation, teacher adaptation, inițial training.