THE IMPACT OF INDUCTION PROGRAM ON TEACHING PRACTICES OF NEW PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN LOWER CHITRAL

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of the induction program on the pedagogical practices of newly appointed primary school teachers in Lower Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The study is based on the real-world issue that new teachers in rural and underserved areas often start working in schools without much professional help, few chances to get mentored, and inconsistent chances to turn what they learned in school into effective teaching. Utilising the completed research of Parveen Baig, the paper examines the impact of induction support on three principal aspects of teachers’ professional practice: instructional methodologies, classroom management, and assessment techniques. The research utilised a quantitative, cross-sectional survey methodology, gathering primary data via a structured five-point Likert-scale questionnaire from 109 newly appointed primary school teachers, chosen from a total of 151 teachers in government primary schools in Lower Chitral. To analyze the data, we applied the SPSS tools of the descriptive statistic. As the results show, teachers are positively impressed with the induction program, which they attribute to the advancements in lesson planning, technology, pedagogy, and student interest. The data reveals the areas of classroom management that may still be missing: the establishment of rules, the process of switching activities, seating, and disruptive behavior. Assessment procedures are one of the areas that require an improvement. These are practices characterized by lack of adequate usage of formative and summative assessment, lack of feedback and lack of correlation of assessment to learning objectives. In this paper, the argument is that although induction has enhanced the confidence of teachers as educators, the induction has not yet attained a competency level where it has mastered all areas of classroom practice. Courtney (2023) acknowledges that to realize the outcomes of teacher quality and student learning, indoctrination of rural settings must extend past the familiarized level of orientation and pedagogy. Continuing mentorship, assessment-literacy, and classroom-management-help-assistance should also be included.

Keywords: Induction, classroom management, Assessment, teaching practices, pedagogy, teacher training, professional development