Browsing by Author "Uusi-Kilponen, Alisa"

Aims. The aim of this bachelor’s thesis was to study the forms of professional support given to newly qualified teachers and how efficient these forms of support are in enhancing teachers’ professional development in Finland. Previous studies have shown how demanding the induction phase can be for new teachers. The fact that a systematic induction program is not yet available doesn’t help new teachers assimilate new information, adapt to the work community and become committed to the teaching profession. Different kinds of experiments have taken place, however. The purpose of this thesis is to chart those forms of support that help the progress of teachers’ professional development in Finland. The purpose is based on the motivation to promote knowledge and understanding of new teachers’ possibilities to get the help needed. Methods. This thesis was produced as a descriptive literature review. The data was collected by using the databases Helka, ARTO and Google Scholar. Ultimately, six publication that were released between the years 2006 - 2015 and written in Finnish, Swedish or English were selected for the analysis. Results and conclusions. According to the research data, the forms of support for newly qualified teachers varied from an introduction to the working environment within the school to different types of mentoring organised in different parts of Finland. The mentoring programs differed from each other in terms of their duration, content and organizing models. While one-to-one conversations in dyadic mentoring supported the professional and personal growth of the mentees, group-based mentoring also offered social support. After the first mentoring experiments, peer group mentoring was further developed, and it seems that it is the most efficient form of support in enhancing a teacher’s comprehensive professional development.