It's bad to be too good: the perils of striving for perfection in teaching

This paper looks at novice teachers' perceptions and aspirations of their teaching. Reading through the blogs of 50 novice science teachers, some teachers were coping better than others with their new placements. Whereas some novice teachers were very frustrated and dissatisfied, others used successful strategies to overcome obstacles. Subsequent analysis of a questionnaire that looked at perfectionist attitudes among these teachers along with their PGCE counterparts across all subjects (a total of 279 teachers) confirmed that the ways in which teachers approached their new role, affected their teaching and the amount of frustration that they encountered. The research warns of the importance of guiding novice teachers with ideas of excellence rather than perfection that many feel they need to attain. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu