The Associations Between the Perception of Helpfulness of Teacher Induction Programs and Anticipated First-year Teacher Retention in China

The purpose of the study was to: (a) determine to what extent the formalized teacher induction programs (TIPs) are perceived to be helpful for first-year public primary school teachers in Shanghai, China; (b) measure anticipated job retention of first-year teachers; and (c) examine the degree to which these TIP helpfulness and anticipated job retention are associated. In this study, retention is defined as remaining in a Shanghai public primary school. Shanghai TIPs are one-year long, mandatory programs for first-year public primary teachers. The conceptual framework of TIPs includes four main components (orientation, mentoring, professional development, and teacher evaluations) as found in Horn, Sterling, and Subhan’s (2002) high-quality teacher induction program component model. The study employed a non-experimental, correlational design and used survey responses from teachers to address the research questions. An on-line survey was completed by 408 participants who held a bachelor’s degree or higher along with a teaching credential and who were within their first year of teaching in a Shanghai public primary school. Results of the study include: (1) Overall, Shanghai public primary school teachers perceived the level of TIP helpfulness to be relatively high; however, the levels of helpfulness varied across the four components; (2) The majority of participants expressed agreement with plans to stay in the same position; and (3) The perception of overall TIP helpfulness was a statistically significant predictor of anticipated teacher retention.