Volume 2 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal of K-12 Educational Research - Page 65

Journal of K-12 Educational Research 63 Results The research questions of the current study focused on three main areas, including the level of preparedness of new teachers, admin- istrator perception of both traditional and non-traditional pro- grams, and the focus for traditional and non-traditional programs to better prepare new teachers for the 21st century. The investigation was designed to answer the following research questions: Research Question 1: According to campus principals, how pre- pared are beginning teachers to take on various roles and respon - sibilities as teachers? Research Question 2: What is the perception of campus level administrators about programs that prepare professional educa- tors? Research Question 3: From the perspective of campus level administrators, what should be the focus of educator prepara- tion programs to prepare, train, and equip teachers for the 21st century? The current study was conducted through a qualitative research approach utilizing a cross-sectional study design with one-on-one interviews. The study was conducted in one suburban independent school district located in north central Texas, which serves approximately 15,000 students. The district includes two traditional high schools, two ninth grade campuses, one career and technology high school, three middle schools, four interme- diate schools, ten elementary schools, and one alternative school. The student population is culturally diverse, composed of approx- imately 29% Hispanic, 22% White, 41%African American, 4% Asian, and 0.7% American Indian, with 64% of students consid - ered to be economically disadvantaged. Research Question 1 Research Question 1 addressed participants’ perceptions about how prepared beginning teachers are to take on the various roles and responsibilities as a teacher. This question was intended to be a general question and was not specific to a type of prepara - tion program. A majority of the participants did not perceive new teachers to be adequately prepared. Overall, 15.7% of participants felt positive about the new teachers’ ability to take on the roles and responsibilities of teaching, 26.3% of participants expressed a neutral feeling, 36.8% expressed mixed feelings, and 21% of participants felt negatively about new teachers’ ability to han- dle the roles and responsibilities of being a teacher. Participants identified three main reasons that new teachers are not prepared for the task of teaching: • realization of job difficulty • EPPs prepare teachers for an unrealistic environment • lack of classroom management knowledge. Research Question 2 Research Question 2 addressed participants’ perceptions about programs that prepare professional educators. Participants shared their perceptions, opinions, and recommendations regarding both traditional and non-traditional EPPs. Overall, participants report - ed that both traditional and non-traditional preparation programs had strong components within their programs. Participants also identified recommendations to be made to both traditional and non-traditional certification programs to better prepare new teach - ers for the teaching field. Participants reported traditional programs’ strengths to be: providing theory, pedagogy, and content knowledge as well as providing field experience to their teacher candidates. Partici - pants reported non-traditional programs’ strengths: • exposure to various educational settings, • supervision and support to teacher candidates, • matching and placement of teacher candidates to good fit schools, • valuing previous life experience, • screening of teacher candidates. Recommendations made by participants to traditional programs to better prepare new teachers included: • adding additional time in classrooms during the field experience portion of their program, • offering more knowledge and training for technology in the classroom, • providing knowledge and training for special population groups of students. Participants’ recommendations to non-traditional programs included: • providing more time for the field experience portion of their program,