New Kids on the Block Schedule: Beginning Teachers Face Challenges

Introduction and Statement of the Problem

Across the United States, an ever-increasing number of high schools have reevaluated their use of instructional time and have adopted some form of a block schedule. Block scheduling, an innovation grounded in Trump's (1959) Flexible Modular Scheduling Design, reorganizes the school day into extended blocks of time, each approximately 70 to 90 minutes. According to proponents of the block schedule, the reorganization of instructional time into longer, more flexible "blocks" offers possibilities to extend classroom experiences (Marshak, 1999), to reduce discipline problems (Hampton, 1997), to increase student attendance (Khazzaka, 1998) and to decrease failure rates (Hottenstein & Maletesta, 1993). Cawelti (1994) believes that block scheduling increases teacher planning time, decreases teacher load by reducing the number of students and preparations per teacher, and encourages teachers to vary teaching strategies.

Literature on the problems of beginning teachers falls into one of two categories: those that deal with problems specific to novice teachers and strategies offered to alleviate those difficulties. To date, no study specifically examining problems of beginning teachers related to teaching within a block schedule could be found in the literature. The purpose of this study was to determine the problems first-year teachers experienced in the block as they negotiated the beginnings of their careers.

First-year Teachers

Studies designed to identify problems and issues facing beginning teachers have been conducted for more than half a century. The findings of these studies indicate that the issues and problems faced by first-year teachers are perennial. Brock and Grady (1997) concluded, "Teaching is one of the few careers in which the least experienced members face the greatest challenges and most responsibilities (p. 11).

Equipped with "book" knowledge of subject matter, a few practiced teaching strategies, and limited planning skills, novice teachers experience an odyssey of emotions which run the gamut--exhilaration, frustration, uncertainty, confusion, and isolation. Veenman (1984) referred to this phenomenon as reality shock, and "In general this concept is used to indicate the collapse of the missionary ideals formed during teaching training by the harsh and rude reality of everyday classroom life" (p. 143). According to Ganser (1997), "Being a beginning teacher is like being in water over your head. You are floating on a tiny piece of foam that crumbles away every day just a little bit" (p. 106).

The problems faced by first-year teachers include isolation (Lortie, 1975; Rosenholtz, 1989), classroom management (Coats & Thoresen, 1978) and general frustrations (Bullough, 1987). Fox and Singletary (1986) found that inexperienced teachers have difficulty adapting to students' needs and abilities. Gordon (1997) reported that "Beginning ... teachers need more than knowledge of content and teaching strategies. Insight into adolescent culture is critical to success in managing a classroom" (p. 56). Lortie (1975) identified isolation as a major obstacle for entry-year teachers, and Rosenholtz (1989) stated, "Most schools are characterized by isolated working conditions where teachers seldom see or hear each other teach" (p. 429).

According to Veenman (1984), the number one problem of entry-year teachers is maintaining classroom discipline. Brock and Grady (1997) attribute this difficulty, at least in part, to the first-year teacher's lack of familiarity with the students' culture: "Novice teachers encounter students whose behaviors are foreign to them. Young themselves, the teachers have difficulty establishing an appropriate social distance" (p. 17).

A second category of literature concerning the problems of beginning teachers includes research that offers solutions to the problems of entry-year teachers. Perhaps the most widely utilized intervention is mentoring. Ponticell and Zepeda (1996) identified eight different ways in which mentors assist novice teachers within the confines of dialogue. Marso and Pigge (1990) concluded that most novice teachers found their mentoring experience helpful. They also found that elementary teachers found their principals as most helpful, whereas secondary teachers believed that other teacher colleagues...