**2.1 The novice teacher in the context of professional development and the difficulties associated with it**

The period when a teacher is considered a novice is not precisely defined and may vary among individuals due to different factors influencing their professional development [8–11]. The period from 1 to 5 years is commonly mentioned in the literature, when, according to Feiman-Nemser [12], novice teachers try to achieve the required professional competence during the first 3 to 4 years. In addition, beginning teachers are most vulnerable to practice shock in their first 3 years [13], which typically manifests as emotional strain. For these reasons, novice teachers are more at risk of leaving the school area throughout this 5-year period than in subsequent years [14]. It is for this reason that it is necessary to understand the problems that novice teachers face in order to make the transition to school practice more effective through undergraduate training [15, 16].

Many studies [16–26] indicate that the majority of novice teachers do not feel fully prepared for their profession, and their statements show that the causes of unpreparedness can be found in all components of undergraduate training: didactic, pedagogical-psychological and pedagogical practices, but least of all in terms of professional expertise.

The last statement is based on the work of Rajsiglová and Přibylová [10], which resulted in the creation of a theory, graphically represented through a dynamic scheme of the tetrahedron model (see **Figure 1**). Based on the results, the authors defined three groups of novice teachers. The respondents in the groups were united by a common view of the evaluation of undergraduate training. The groups then differed in how they coped with teaching after entering practice. Novice teachers who encountered a lack of discipline in their pupils, which they were unable to resolve optimally, developed a feeling of failure and subsequently assessed undergraduate preparation, in relation to the pedagogic-psychological component (**Figure 1**-I), negatively. For this reason, the corners of the tetrahedron representing the pedagogicalpsychological component of training were accented upwards within the terms of the

*The Influence of Undergraduate Preparation on Professional Beginnings in School Practice… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112309*

**Figure 1.**

*Evaluation of undergraduate education components by novice teachers –tetrahedral visualisation. Did. – Didactic training of biology, Ped. Practice – Pedagogical practice, Ped-psych – Pedagogic-psychological training.*

tetrahedron's graphic appearance. This indicated the novice teachers' increased attention and criticism of this component of undergraduate preparation. Gradually, as the novice teacher improved in managing the pupils' lack of discipline, the teacher's opinion of his ability to cope with the reality of school shifted to more positive values. As a result, the opposite side of the tetrahedron representing the didactic component of preparation rose, and the attention was focused on this point at this time (**Figure 1**- III). There was an oscillating interim state between these two points (**Figure 1**-II), where novice teachers sought and focused on aspects of both the pedagogicpsychological component and the didactic component (lack of time needed for preparation, inability to fulfil the lesson plan, time-consuming administration, nonfunctional technology, etc.).

From the above, the main research question emerged: "How prepared are beginning teachers to manage teaching in real school practice in the context of undergraduate training?". This broad question, which is characteristic of qualitative research, is divided into two specific research questions, see below.

#### **2.2 Anchoring the issue and research questions**

It follows from the literature that novice teachers encountered only a fraction of unexpected situations during their undergraduate training, which they then had to deal with in actual practice, and they were usually not provided with relevant advice or tips for solving them, even within the theoretical teaching [25].

As stated by Fantilli and McDougall [14], novice teachers are the group mostly at risk of leaving the job early. According to Darling-Hammond [4], among other things, the quality of undergraduate training has an effect on the turnover rate of novice teachers.

It follows from the work of Šimoník [7] that there is a positive correlation between perceived difficulties and a worse perceived level of preparation for them. Searching for ways to overcome the isolation of undergraduate preparation from school reality is a trend that we note in the publications of a number of authors (cf. [27–29], etc.). With this text, we are trying to support this trend and suggest a possible direction, as we consider the issue of the difficulties of beginning teachers in relation to undergraduate training and school practice to be still current and to discuss it as necessary.

With regard to the above considerations and for the needs of this work, two specific research questions were established:


Qualitative research described in the following chapter was chosen to answer the research questions.
