The director of a private preschool is looking for ways to help recent graduates learn independently and manage their own professional development, as they currently rely too heavily on explicit instruction. Several solutions are proposed to address this issue: 1. Require student teaching and formal mentorship programs to give new teachers more experience before and after they are hired. 2. Partner with universities to incorporate more practical experience, self-assessment, and opportunities for peer learning into early childhood education programs. 3. Improve the hiring process to identify candidates who are suited for independent learning and mentorship, and consider alternative hiring models like short-term contracts. 4. Create formal training and mentoring programs once hired to teach self-

1. Problem Statement
GS a director at a private, church run, preschool is looking for a way to ensure that recent graduates can effectively learn from their peers and
better manage their own professional development because recent grads seem to be stuck in classroom learning mode where they need a
teacher to explicitly teach them things, give them homework assignment and grade them for feedback - which makes managing them too time
consuming.
Solution Ideation
Change Licensing/Requirements
1. Require student teaching for pre-k teachers
2. Require a formal mentorship program both for new teachers and as a continuing education
requirement for existing teachers
Change what universities do
or how the preschool leverages
university resources.
3. Have students take a "lab" class that teaches learning on the job - put students into situations
where they need to figure it out for themselves.
4. Create a rotation class where early childhood educations students spend time in many
experienced teachers’ classrooms so they can get exposure to a wide range of experienced
teachers and have to incorporate what they’ve learned from them into their class assignments.
5. Incorporate mentorship case studies into curriculum for early childhood education.
6. Incorporate formal mentorship relationships into educational experience - maybe across class
years - facilitate peer learning.
7. Include self-assessment & self-improvement into grading standards and practices
8. Include more practical experience in classes - get the students "doing more" in classroom
management, etc. (even if it isn't with the right age students...)
9. Find a way to bring in student teachers to build relationships with a wider/different set of
potential new teachers.
10. Partner with universities to offer part time jobs to early childhood education graduate students
who are looking to get certified as teachers.
11. See if there is a school administration program whose participants need experience observing
and giving feedback to new teachers and use the administration students as additional
resources

2. 12. See if there are school administration program participants that could help school director
support the new teachers. (School Director “student teacher”).
13. Have school hosts roundtable discussions with groups of alumni to give recent teachers a
chance to interact with a wider variety of experienced teachers.
14. Use Alumni mentor networks so recent grads can find mentors outside their current workplace
Change who you hire
15. Only hire experienced teachers
16. Find the budget necessary to offer salary, etc. necessary to attract a wider pool of higher quality
applicants
17. Only hire people for whom teaching pre-k is a second career
Change how you hire
18. Only hire recent grads on a short term/contract basis and don't bring them on full time if
they're unable to learn on their own and managing them becomes cumbersome
19. Add case to interview process to see how candidate would handle an unknown situation
20. Find “volunteer” organizations (like Teach For America/others) to partner with to get access to
slightly more experienced teachers
21. Include a screening question in the initial job posting where applicants are asked to identify an
existing mentor in their cover letter/email.
22. Include a screening question in the initial job posting where applicants are asked to say what
they would learn from a mentor in their cover letter/email.
23. Add specific interview questions to gauge candidate's ability to self reflect
24. Ask for references from mentors
25. Identify relevant tests that show ability to self-reflect & include in hiring process
26. Bring in potential new hires to work with experienced teachers before they graduate to get to
know them before hiring
27. Leverage online dating/co-founder dating style tools to get a sense of the cultural match
between a candidate and the school
28. Once a short list of candidates has been identified, assign a mentor to each candidate to see how
the relationship develops before making a hiring decision

3. 29. Have potential new hires observe a more experienced teacher and write a “what I can learn”
essay about the experience
30. Include a (multi-day?) in classroom observation in the hiring process
31. Have candidates write a self-reflection essay as part of application
Change the
"training” process
32. Have recent grads observe experienced teachers and write 3-5 things they learned
33. Have recent grads write about something they did in the classroom setting that they thought
they could have done better and say what they would do next time
34. Create a workbook to teach how to learn from others with more experience
35. When a new teacher feels the need to call for guidance, have them write down the problem and
list three ways they’ve tried to solve it on their own before calling the school director for
assistance
36. Create a formalized self-evaluation process which includes suggestions for improvement
37. Find outside organizations/schools where new teachers can get feedback
38. Have recent grads read books on the topic
39. Have recent grads watch videos on the topic
40. Have roundtable discussions among group of new and more experienced teachers
41. Have new teachers get feedback from parents and other members of the school community
who observe them in the classroom
42. Use role playing exercises
Change the mentoring
experience
43. Create a formal mentoring program that stresses two way nature of learning
44. Create a “observation” program where experienced teachers observe new teachers and give
feedback related to what they observed (but not create the broader mentorship relationship)
45. Create an anonymous mentor program - where mentees could interact (online?) with more
experienced teachers more at arms’ length.
46. Create an online community for pre-school teachers where they could share experiences
without a formal mentoring structure

4. 47. Create a knowledge base (a la Quora) where experienced teachers answer questions.
48. Have an “on call” experienced teacher who should be called for advice before the school
director is contacted (not a formal mentor)
49. Create a luncheon/coffee/something else session with teachers from other preschools to see if
new teachers can find mentors they “click with” from other schools.
50. Create a support network where new teachers can help each other
51. Bring in an outside facilitator to help with mentoring