Most beginning science teachers enter schools in the fall with fervor and dedication. Those entering a self-paced classroom typically will find it to be a center of bustling activity with students working on a number of diverse activities. The first year of science teaching is a time of confrontation, of shock, and of conflict. The beginning science teacher must act. Out of this need to act comes a great amount of activity, some effective and some ineffective. The beginning science teacher in a self-paced classroom encounters problems because he is a first year science teacher and because there are problems that are peculiar to the self-paced classroom. With little experience in self-paced instruction, the beginning science teacher finds that the first year of teaching is a time for developing an individual teaching method appropriate to the self-paced nature of his classroom
