Background/Purpose Even the best teacher preparation programs cannot provide all that there is to know about teaching. The Central Tasks of Learning to Teach (CTLT) highlights five tasks novice teachers learn during their induction years: gain local knowledge of students, curriculum, and school Context; design responsive Instructional Program; enact a Beginning Repertoire; create a Classroom Community; and develop a Professional Identity (Feiman-Nemser , 2001). The purpose of the study is to compare CTLT experienced by first and second year physical education teachers.
Method Interviews were conducted at the end of the first teaching year with 21 PE teachers. One year later, 15 of the 21 participants accepted to participate in a follow-up interview. Participants signed consent forms approved by the school district's and the researcher's Review Board.
Analysis/Results The text of each interview was analyzed with each portion carrying a specific idea categorized as one of the CTLT. A total of 1639 units were analyzed, 1084 for Year 1 and 555 for Year 2. From Year 1 to Year 2, a decrease is found in the Context category (53% to 43%), and a comparable gain is present in the Professional Identity category (9% to 19%). Classroom Context also increases, although more subtly (from 4% to 9%), while Beginning Repertoire decreases in the same fashion (from 33% to 29%).
Conclusions While teachers were still concerned with their teaching context and beginning repertoire, the development of their professional identity is noticeable. This difference show the importance of targeting the professional development opportunity provided to novice teachers.