Tips for new teachers and the schools that support them: what mentoring and induction research shows, and what it does not.
Dawn J. Mitchell and Dr. Sam Maddox shared in 2017 the tips that Spartanburg School District 6 mentors give first-year teachers about teaching with intention. A new section after their text looks at what research says about mentoring and induction for new teachers and how a school can use it.
In Spartanburg, SC School District 6 the focus is on “Teaching with Intention”
by Dawn J. Mitchell and Dr. Sam Maddox
“Quality is never an accident, it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”
— Willa Foster
Each year as we embark on a new year together of mentoring and supporting our new teachers, we engage in reflective practice and together decide a focus for ourselves for the coming year. This year our focus was “Teaching with Intention.” Below are the tips we shared with our incoming class of first-year teachers that we want to pass along to you.
First, Lay the Foundation
Realize that your life is made up of choices. Every morning is a new day full of decisions and opportunity. You get to choose your outlook. You don’t have to let the circumstances of your past negatively determine the pattern of your future.
Evaluate the Culture
Life is not lived in a vacuum. It is lived surrounded by a culture that is moving around us, forming a swift current. Teaching with intention will require you to take a step back and evaluate the flow of the stream to determine where it is headed, how it is affecting you, and if it is taking you in a direction you desire.
Examine Yourself
Know who you are. Get a strong handle on your passions, talents, abilities, and challenges. Give time and energy to this endeavor. It is one of the most valuable things you can do. Don’t compare yourself to others, but it is wonderful to be inspired by others and even adopt some of their practices if they are beneficial to you.
Define a Purpose
Identify what you want your teaching career to communicate and to contribute. Find/rediscover a passion to live for and to teach for that is bigger than yourself. Write it down; it will provide a focus for you. Do not be critical of yourself if your goals are not identical to someone else’s. Success looks different for different people.
Set Goals
Goals move us and shape us. Set goals that are directly in line with your defined purpose. By their very nature, they will introduce intentionality into your life. Stay focused. We live in a world of constant connectivity and distraction that is begging for our attention nearly every moment of the day. Learn to turn off the distraction and live your life instead.
Learn from Others
Successful people are curious people. They possess the humility to learn from others. Identify people accomplishing your purpose and goals. Then, study them, learn from them, and grow alongside them.
Reflect and Rewrite
To teach with intention effectively, we must periodically take time to reflect. To pause and ask ourselves how it’s going, what is working, what isn’t, and to consider what we can do differently. We have the opportunity not only to write our goals and our plans, but to also re-write them when necessary.
Model Curiosity
At the risk of being controversial, imparting information is only one part of being an effective teacher. Equally important? Modeling curiosity, a genuine love of learning and knowledge, and above all showing others what it looks like to be passionate about a particular pursuit. When students see their teacher’s enthusiasm for his/her content area, the enthusiasm is contagious.
Show the Relevance
Just as we wish to know why we need to complete a task, attend a meeting, or learn a new skill, students want and need to know why we consider our topics of study and assignments are important. Students need never ask, “When are we going to use this?” or “Why do we need to know this?” because those answers should be both implicit and explicit in our instruction.
Finally, See the Child
Toni Morrison said of parenting, “Let your face speak what’s in your heart. When they walk in the room my face says I’m glad to see them. It’s just as small as that, you see?” This advice applies to teaching as well. Before we see the test score, the classroom management challenge, or the student who has a question about everything, let us first see the child and what makes him/her unique. Occasionally we recall the content a gifted teacher shared with us, but more often we remember the teachers who were kind, patient, and present for us at times we needed and appreciated it the most.
Tips for new teachers in 2026: what the research says about mentoring, induction and staying in the profession
Dawn J. Mitchell and Dr. Sam Maddox offer tips for new teachers that concern outlook and purpose: choose an attitude, define a purpose, set goals, learn from others, reflect and see the child. Those are habits of mind, and a first-year teacher also depends on what the school provides, which usually means a mentor and an induction program. Research on these supports is less one-sided than it is often presented, and a principal who knows what it shows can choose supports with clearer expectations. This section covers the evidence on mentoring for new teachers, what it can and cannot show, and how a first-year teacher can use the tips above.
What national data show about mentored teachers
The National Center for Education Statistics followed about 1,990 first-year public school teachers who started in 2007-08 and published the results in Career Paths of Beginning Public School Teachers in September 2015. About 77 percent of them taught all five years of the study, and 23 percent did not. Eighty percent had been assigned a mentor in their first year. Of those with a mentor, 80 percent taught all five years, compared with 64 percent of those without one. Eighty percent of teachers who took part in an induction program taught all five years, compared with 69 percent of those who did not, a difference the report notes is not statistically significant at the .05 level (it is at the .10 level). The report also notes that earlier research found attrition as high as 41 percent within the first five years, so estimates differ by cohort and by how attrition is counted.
The report is a Statistics in Brief, and it says plainly that such publications present descriptive data and do not support causal inferences. Teachers who received a mentor may also have worked in schools with better conditions, which would affect whether they stayed. The figures show an association between support and staying, and they do not show that a mentor alone causes it.
What a randomized trial found
A randomized trial gives a different kind of evidence. The Institute of Education Sciences published a study by Mathematica Policy Research in 2010 in which 418 schools in 17 districts took part and novice teachers in about half of the schools were assigned by lottery to receive comprehensive induction while the rest received the usual support. The program included a full-time mentor with ongoing training, monthly professional development and chances to observe veteran teachers. Among the 1,009 beginning teachers followed for three years, the study found no effect on retention in any year and no effect on classroom practice measured in the first year. For the districts that offered two years of induction, student achievement was higher in the third year, equal to moving an average student from the 50th to the 54th percentile in reading and to the 58th in math. The one-year districts showed no achievement effect.
The two studies do not contradict each other as much as they first appear to. The national data compare teachers who happened to have mentors with those who did not, and the trial tested one defined package. The practical reading is that the amount and quality of support matter, and that a program of one year may not be enough to change results for students.
What a principal can do with the evidence
Offer induction over two years rather than one when budget allows, since the trial’s student benefits appeared only after two years.
Protect time for mentors to observe and meet, because the trial’s package included observation of veteran teachers and regular professional development.
Measure what the school wants to improve, such as retention, classroom observations or student results, rather than assume mentoring works.
Treat working conditions as part of retention. The NCES report lists induction and mentoring together with salary, working conditions and personal circumstances as factors in why teachers stay or leave.
Using the tips as a first-year teacher
Mitchell and Maddox suggest that teachers “Reflect and Rewrite” and “Learn from Others.” A first-year teacher can turn those into a weekly routine: a fixed time to write down what worked, what did not and one thing to change, and a standing request to watch a colleague teach. Asking the mentor to observe a class and give written notes supplies the kind of feedback the trial’s observation component was meant to provide. The tip to “Show the Relevance” is also easy to test, by asking students at the end of a lesson why the work matters and noting how many can answer.
Adjunct Instructor, Furman University; Instructional Services, Spartanburg County School District 6
Dawn Johnson Mitchell is an adjunct instructor at Furman University and serves in instructional services in Spartanburg District 6. She is a member of the 2015 Class of ASCD Emerging Leaders.
Sam Maddox serve in instructional services in Spartanburg (S.C.) School District Six where they work together to co-teach the district’s induction course, providing relevant strategies and support to first-year teachers. Mitchell and Maddox also serve as adjunct instructors at Furman University.
