Janet Draper is at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of Exeter

whilst Jim O'Brien is Vice Dean, Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh.

Induction is a broad concept which is applicable to teachers at several career stages. The authors explore past and current findings on the early experience of teachers as they arrive in new posts. They set these experiences into the policy framework and practice of induction within a context of changing work and career patterns with themes of changing conceptions and practices of professional development. Planned induction may be seen as an idea whose time came for beginning teachers in Scotland at the turn of the new millennium. However the future sustenance and development of induction will require continuing commitment, if it is to avoid becoming ossified within a relatively static framework for professional development.