A study of graduates of the de Lissa Institute of Early Childhood Studies and the School of Early Childhood Studies (SECS) at the University of Melbourne in Australia identified changes in the professional attitudes of teachers during their first year of teaching. Early childhood teachers working in junior primary schools, preschool kindergartens, or child care centers were surveyed three times over a 1-year period. The sample, which included a cohort of graduates from each school for the years 1988, 1989, and 1990, was composed of 42 SECS graduates and 23 de Lissa graduates. The survey solicited the teachers' perceptions of: their authority, status, and job satisfaction; their colleagues; and their own performance. It was found that in three of the six cohorts, teachers were more inclined to feel lack of authority and status during the second term than during the first or third terms. Members of five of the six cohorts indicated that they were happy with their jobs by the end of the third term. Respondents became increasingly positive about their colleagues' work during the course of the year. For five of the cohorts, there was a second-term increase in the number of teachers agreeing that "the school/center expects too much of a beginning teacher." The number who agreed decreased in the third term. Responses to the Fuller Teacher Concerns Survey revealed a strong move toward professional maturity by the third term. (AC)