MIT and the Ecological approach Bronfenbrenners notable ecological

MIT and the Ecological approach Bronfenbrenner's notable ecological theory describes the individual as being influenced by several sociocultural concentric systems influencing his/her growth and development. It views the individual as situated within a complex system of relationships consisting of five nested environments (e. g. , microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem) situated along a continuum from near to far distances. According to Bronfenbrenner, the most influential system is the immediate one – the microsystem. The microsystem includes the closest circles in an individual’s life. It usually refers to the family, friends and work environments. These circles, their characteristics and the interactions between them form the cognitive and emotional attitudes held by the individual. By extension, the underlying principles and assumptions of the MIT project can be viewed as aligned with the ecological theory. The decision to situate the support workshop for novice-teachers within their schools, the professional immediate environment, reflects the idea proposed by the ecological theory of taking into account the unique set of challenges, forces and aspects of human-relationships the novice-teacher experiences in the initial phase of teaching. The MIT workshops build on the unique characteristics of the school environment utilizing the situated diverse resources to support the needs of the novice-teacher; moreover, they gradually become a platform for expressions of the teacher’s professional creativity and educational initiatives. In this current conference, we will address various dimensions of the experiences of the novice teacher in his/her primary environment of the school context, such as the interactions among the novice teacher and his/her students, colleagues, parents and their impact on his/her professional growth. 1

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