Supporting the teaching development of newly qualified teachers through lesson studies during their induction phase and mentoring programme

As of the 2019/20 school year, newly qualified teachers employed to teach in Austrian schools will be entering a mentoring programme at their career start for the first time. This programme is the responsibility of the school authority and is to last for the induction phase of 12 months. Support to newly employed teachers is provided by collegial mentors and accompanying induction courses provided by the Colleges of Teacher Training. Teaching the curriculum of general competencies as well as the didactic and methodological principles of teaching the diverse subjects of the national curriculum are the stated priority development goals. In order to achieve this, the lesson study approach was chosen as an instrument of professional development support, as it takes advantage of the long-standing and unique professional experiences of all teachers and the school principal in an individual school within its social community.