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Fuller's Concerns Theory of Teacher Development

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Description

Fuller (1969) grew concerns theory out of analysis of recorded interview transcripts with student teachers, tracking what problems and concerns they expressed at different points in their training. The theory conceptualizes a prospective teacher's development as a natural flow from concerns for self (teacher), to task (teaching), to impact (pupil).

The survival stage is marked by concerns centered on the teacher's own well-being rather than the teaching task or the learners: will my students like me, will they listen, what will parents and the principal think of me, will I ever have time to myself (Borich, 1993; Burden, 1986; Fuller, 1969; Ryan, 1992). Bullough (1989) described it as "the fight for one's professional life" (p. 16).

The task stage (also called the mastery stage, consolidation and exploration, or trial and error by other authors) begins once survival and self-concerns start to diminish — there is no precise moment this happens, only a gradual shift. Concerns turn to how best to deliver instruction: are my materials good enough, will I have time to cover the content, how can I add variety, what's the best way to teach a given skill.

The impact stage is characterized by concerns about the effect of teaching on learners rather than management or lesson delivery: how can I increase learners' feelings of accomplishment, how do I meet their social and emotional needs, how do I challenge unmotivated learners, what do they need for the next grade.

Fuller found that during the early, middle, and late phases of student teaching, preservice teachers' concerns shifted in exactly this order — self, then task, then impact — representing a developmental growth pattern that can extend over months or years of a career, with the most effective and experienced teachers expressing student-centered (impact) concerns at a high level of commitment. The progression is not strictly one-directional, however: a teacher can return to an earlier stage of concern (for example, from concern for pupils back to concern for task) as a result of being assigned a new grade or subject, or moving to an unfamiliar school — concerns can be context-dependent as well as developmental, and the three stages are not mutually exclusive at any given time, only differing in relative intensity.

Shulman (1992) identifies four types of knowledge important to this progression: practical knowledge (from field experience and student teaching itself), case knowledge (from reading what successful and unsuccessful teachers have done), theoretical knowledge (from conceptual systems and paradigms for thinking about teaching), and empirical knowledge (from research on a subject and how to teach it). Educational psychology as a discipline focuses primarily on the latter two.

Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Recognition, in teacher preparation and induction programs, that self-focused concerns in a new teacher's first year are a normal developmental stage rather than a sign of inadequate commitment to students

Constraints

  • A new placement (different grade, subject, or school) can push an experienced teacher's concerns back toward task or even survival, so concern level is not a fixed trait of the individual teacher [~M]
  • The three stages overlap in practice — a teacher can hold impact-level concerns predominantly while still carrying lower-intensity task or self concerns

Target Learners

  • Preservice and early-career teachers, whose predominant concerns can be expected to be self- and task-focused rather than a personal shortcoming
  • Teacher educators and mentors designing support that matches the concerns a teacher is actually likely to have at a given career stage

Target Learning Objectives

  • Progression from self- and task-focused concerns toward sustained, high-commitment concern for student impact

Examples

  • A mentoring program that expects a first-year teacher's questions to center on classroom control and time management rather than individual student growth, and treats that as developmentally normal rather than a deficiency

Key Sources

  • Fuller, F. F. (1969). Concerns of teachers: A developmental conceptualization. American Educational Research Journal, 6, 207–226.
  • Bullough, R. V. (1989). First-year teacher: A case study. Teachers College Press.
  • Borich, G. (1993). Clearly outstanding: Making each day count in your classroom. Allyn & Bacon.
  • Burden, P. R. (1986). Teachers' perceptions of the characteristics and influences on their personal and professional development. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Teacher Educators.
  • Ryan, K. (1992). The roller coaster year: Essays by and for beginning teachers. HarperCollins.
  • Shulman, L. S. (1992). Toward a pedagogy of substance. AAHE Bulletin, 44, 3–7.
  • Arduini-Van Hoose, N. (2020). Teacher development. In Educational psychology. Retrieved from https://edpsych.pressbooks.sunycreate.cloud. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Page metadata
Field Value
type theory
title Fuller's Concerns Theory of Teacher Development
description New teachers pass through a predictable sequence of concerns — self-survival, then the teaching task, then impact on students — with the most effective and experienced teachers reaching student-centered concerns at a high level of commitment.
status review
canonical True
generated by claude/unspecified on 2026-08-29
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