Chapters 9-11
The Kindergarten Movement
The Nursery School Movement
Day Nursereis to Day Care to Child Care to Quality 2000
In chapter 10, Lillian Katz suggested early childhood teachers pass through certain developmental stages (Survival Stage ...) Later (1988) Vander Ven suggested a model composed of 5 stages
Discuss either Katz or Vander Ver's stages and how they relate to personal and educational growth.
As an early childhood educator which stage of development would you be in?
Answer is comment #1
8 comments:
Generally educators, theorists, and parents discuss the developmental stages of children. As early as 1972 Lillian Katz suggested preschool teachers and other teachers as well may go through four distinct stages of development during their professional careers.
Katz wrote, "It is useful to think of the growth of preschool teachers (and perhaps other teachers, also) as occuring in stages, linked generally to expereince gained over time." (p. 53).
First, she suggested the stage of survival. In this stage the young teacher is concerned in just making it through the day, the week, and the year. Perhaps one important question the young teacher asks her/himself during this time is, " Am I right for this job?" "Can I do justice to the children?" And, "Will I be accepted by the other teachers?" The first year of teaching is a difficult time as the more seasoned teachers reflect on their own experiences.
Second, the stage of consolidation in which the teachers realizes the gains made during the first year and begins to question, " how can I help these children in the learning process?"
Third, comes the stage of renewal. Katz suggested this may occur in the third or fourth year. During this time the teacher begins to see the rewards of teaching, new expereinces, and colloborating with other professionals in conferences and engaging in advanced teacher training and memberships in professional organizations.
Fourth, the stage of maturity in which the teacher begins to examine her/his philosophy of teaching and the growth and development of career choices and new perspectives. During stage 4 teachers may become tired of conferences and professional development and search for novel ways to return to the renewal stage.
On a side note I found the stages of teacher development an interesting read and just as relavant today as it was in 1972 when written by Katz. I am wondering if any new research has been done in this area and hope someone may come across something new. The article is in RefWorks and is short but insightful.
L. G. (1972). Developmental stages of preschool teachers. The Elementary School Journal, 73(1, 50-54.
There can be stages of growth as Gesell, the developmental psychologist, believed. He felt life would unfold in a series of stages with a pattern of time and accomplishments or activities.
I think we tend to view physical growth much the same today with the stages of infancy, childhood, adolesence, young adulthood, adulthood, middle age, and old age. We tend to view each stage with certain physical markers and life experiences or accomplishments. Each stage helps equip us mentally, emotionally, and socially for the next. But also, like Piaget thought environment could be an influence on the developmental process.
In Katz's stage of survival I think back to my first year of teaching and the pressure I put on myself to do everything exactly right, to get along with everyone, try to establish good relationships with my kids and parents and also not forget to keep up with the many administrative tasks I had to do. It was overwhelming. It was survival with no time to reflect or make changes or even think about philosophy.
I see consolidation as the integration of the experiences as the pieces began to come together to make a picture. There is a willingness to ask and recieve help from those more experienced, learning how to benefit from collaboration with fellow teachers
Renewal I see as a fresh way of looking at things. A desire to be flexible, appreciating the idea of life long learning, how teaching is not static but ever changing and we must be willing to renew our ideas and philosophies as we go by reflecting and sharing with others.
In the maturity stage, I see a solid base of knowledge and experience with wisdom sprinkled on it. The teacher begins to see the world of education beyond her classroom and desires to use the years of experience to become an advocate to improve the profession. There can be more reflection, pondering philosophies and ideologies with an eye on what is practical. With greater maturity comes greater responsibility.
Jan
Jan, thank you for your insightful and personal comment regarding your experience in teaching, I can see myself in all of those stages too.
Teachers are at many different stages in their careers. Just as children develop in stages in their development of intellect and knowledge, so do teachers (Feixas, 2001). Improved understanding of the stages of teachers’ growth suggests ways of guiding that growth and therefore strengthening teacher’s performance in the classroom. The term “teacher development” can mean activities such as workshops and graduate It can also involve reading for self-improvement, and coursework meant to develop teachers’ professional abilities. Teacher development is also a process that occurs with time, experience and training. Researchers, such as Burden (1980), Gregorc (1973), and Peterson (1979) have pointed out that teachers, like children, go through developmental stages. Can a teacher’s stage of development affect a teacher’s behavior toward children in the classroom? Can the likelihood that she will abuse and neglect a child or report abusive behavior of a child be impacted by her stage of teacher development? Let’s examine four stages of teacher development identified by Lillian Katz (1972): Survival, Consolidation, Renewal and Maturity.
Survival
During this first year of a teacher’s career, the new teacher wonders if she will be able to cope and get through each day. The teacher’s focus is often on herself and her own needs. Teachers at this stage have less understanding of children and their needs, and are often overwhelmed by the new rules, regulations, and requirements. Lesson planning, scheduling, assessment of children often overwhelms new teachers. Teachers will sometimes blame the children in their classrooms for poor performance or inability to control their classroom. “I could be a great teacher if only Johnny wasn’t in my room” or “My lesson plans are fine…but these children just won’t listen or cooperate” are common refrains. Teachers in this stage often feel that situations are beyond their control and they feel helpless. A teacher who is feeling overwhelmed by their first year of teaching could blame children for her own inexperience and lack of planning. It would be easy to choose one or two children that tend to be disruptive and make them the scapegoats for everything that goes wrong in the classroom. A teacher who has not developed a variety of tools for guidance could easily resort to yelling, ridicule, pushing, yanking and even hitting in an attempt to control those children and the classroom.
Consolidation
The second to the third or fourth year of teaching is one of consolidation, where teachers begin to focus more on instruction and needs of individual children. Lesson planning is better understood and teachers have usually developed some rules and routines for children that help them feel more in control. Usually the needs of the average child are more easily met, although children who have special needs can still cause the teacher to struggle.
Renewal
The teacher at this stage is feeling more in control of her classroom. Sometimes this means that the teacher becomes too controlling. Some teachers begin to use such methods at this stage like humiliation, ridicule, and manipulation as guidance strategies. These teachers may also be more aware of the child who is not conforming and may try to exert more control over these children.
Maturity
Most teachers who reach this stage begin to look more at their philosophies and perceptions about teaching. They look for ways to mentor or bring about change in programs and children’s lives. But some teachers feel trapped when administrators or programs are rigid and not open to change. Some mature teachers can also feel that they are unable to change or progress and may be more rigid in their interactions with children.
Each stage of development for teachers brings with it new insights and new challenges. I believe that I am in the Maturity stage. I have taught for 30 plus years in a variety of settings. I am constantly finding new experiences that challenge me in new ways and broaden my perspective. I feel that I am going on to an advocacy role now more than ever; advocating for children and new teachers. I also find myself wanting to learn more about children in a more cultural, global perspective. I believe my trips to China, Hungary, Israel and Russia have influenced my decision to explore a more global route for me.
I chose to look at Lillian Katz’s stages because I like the terminology of survival stage.
Katz’s models has four stages: survival, consolidation, renewal, and maturity.
During the survival phase which typically lasts up through the end of the first year, a new teacher focus is on if she can make it through the day handling all the requirements of her job without anyone becoming lost or hurt. Her thought is “Can I make it?” This teacher needs emotional, mental and physical support and training. A mentor is helpful for this teacher.
During the consolidation phase, a teacher has gained confidence in herself and moves on the figuring out what she would like to accomplish next in her classroom. She begins to focus on individual children and providing them with special support for specific issues.
During the renewal phase, around the third year of teaching, the teacher begins to tire of repetitious sequences of daily activities and units of study. Doing the same thing every year. During this time, the teacher needs to explore how to change what she is doing and how she is doing it to make it more for both her and her students. Conference and discussion with other teachers with different ideas help in this stage.
During the maturity phase that may happen as early as three years but mostly around 5 years, a teacher has come to a place of who she is and how she teaches. She begins to search deeper into the philosophical, theoretical and historical reasons for herself and education.
I personally am at the maturity phase of development. I’ve been in survival mode, consolidation mode, and renewal mode. I remember asking the questions about why do we teach this and this way? It started me on my quest for my PhD.
I also think environment greatly impacts the stages. I also think stages are not mutually exclusive. We can move up and down the later. This last year of teaching, with graduate school, getting married and working with a new team, I felt like I was in survival mode on a lot of days. Are we going to make it through today? We did incorporate themes and changed the way we presented topics like in the renewal stage. Does that mean I lost my maturity as a teacher?
Katz, L. (1995). The Developmental Stages of Preschool Teachers. In Talks with Teachers of Young Children: A Collection. Stamford, CT: Ablex.
This link takes you to Katz’s paper: http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/pubs/katz-dev-stages.html
I feel that I started the stages over again when I transitioned from teaching second graders to teaching undergraduate students. The first semester I taught at the college level, I sometimes felt like I was in survival mode. Although it was easier than when I first started to teach elementary school, I felt that I was relearning how to teach and second guessing myself more than I had in several years. The more classes I teach, the more comfortable I become and I feel that I am progressing through these stages more quickly this time through.
Thank you all for your insightful comments especially in relation to your own personal expereinces. I think we all agree we can see ourselves in each of those stages of teacher development and these stages continue to flow in and out as we progress toward new ways of thinking and expereinces, especially years of expereince. One cruicial point is renewing the excitement of teaching and believing we can make a difference in the lives of the children we teach, no matter how ill-equipped we are to face some challenges we always survive.
I am including the references I used. I get so excited about writing that I forget to include them. Here they are:
References
Burden, P.R. (1990). Teacher
development. In W.R. Houston
(Ed.), Handbook of Resarch on
Teacher Education, 311-328. New
York: Macmillan, Inc.
Fexias, M. (2001). What changes as
new university teachers
develop? Models and issues.
Paper presented to the 9th
conference of the European
Association for Research on
Learning and Instruction:
Bridging Learning to
Instruction, Fribourg,
Switzerland.
Gregorc, A.F. (1973). Developing
plans for professional
growth. NASSP Bulletin, 57, 108.
Katz, L. (1975). Developmental
stages of preschool teachers.
Elementary School Journal, 73
(1), 50-54.
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