Lessons from the classroom: first year teachers report about their perceptions of life as a beginning teacher

The Knowledge Building Community (KBC) Program at the UOW was designed as an alternative model of teacher education and an intention of its underpinning framework was that it would produce beginning teachers who were confident with problem solving and collaboration. It was hoped that by exposing the students to contextual based learning and a mentoring culture they would be equipped to cope and or seek support in order to deal with the rigours and demands of the primary school classroom. This paper will look at four school and classroom features identified as significant to beginning teaching success namely: Total Responsibility, Behaviour Management, Time Management and Mentor Support.