Uncovering contents of mentor teachers' interactive cognitions during mentoring dialogues

In the context of developing mentor teachers' use of supervisory skills, two consecutive studies were conducted, using stimulated recall. Firstly, with eight participants, an instrument was developed to categorize contents of interactive cognitions. Secondly, with 30 participants, the instrument was applied to uncover contents of mentor teachers' interactive cognitions, before and after training in supervisory skills. After training, mentor teachers demonstrate an increased awareness of their use of supervisory skills. This indicates that mentor teachers not only seem to emphasize pupil learning and needs when conducting a mentoring dialogue, but simultaneously focus on their own supervisory behaviour.     

Clarifying pre-service teacher perceptions of mentor teachers’ developing use of mentoring skills

The aim of this study is to clarify how pre-service teachers perceive mentor teachers’ use of mentoring skills. Sixty stimulated-recall interviews were conducted, each in connection with a previously recorded mentoring dialogue. A quantitative analysis showed that six types of mentoring skills appeared to be perceived by pre-service teachers as offering emotional support and five others as offering task assistance. After mentor teachers were trained in mentoring skills, shifts in their frequencies of use of distinct skills, as observed by independent raters, corresponded to a considerable extent with shifts in frequencies of pre-service teacher perceptions of mentor teachers’ mentoring behaviour.     

Learning to mentor: unravelling routine practice to develop adaptive mentoring expertise

While studies have shown that mentoring is central to new teacher development, few investigations have examined what mentors learn about themselves as mentors. The purpose of the study was to illuminate mentor learning. The article reports on two case studies that investigated the development of mentoring expertise over a two-year period. During this period, the two mentor participants were engaged in a professional development intervention focused on fostering mentoring expertise. Data sources included transcribed professional conversations, interviews and action research documentation. Analysis of these data found that despite good intentions, mentors’ preconceptions of their role were difficult to change. Where substantive change was evident, there was a conceptual shift from a focus on mentee and student learning to include mentor learning. The study suggests that the development of mentor expertise is complex and cannot be assumed. The complexity associated with letting go of deeply ingrained beliefs and practices to develop mentoring expertise is illuminated in the dynamic interaction between the school context, the mentor’s preconceptions and re-conceptualisation of their role along with the on-going assessment of professional learning opportunities.     

Dialogue in the support of learning to teach: a case study of a mentor/mentee pair in a teacher education programme

In this paper, we examine the role of reflection in teacher preparation, specifically within a mentoring relationship between cooperating and preservice teacher. We report findings from a case analysis of this pair who engaged in problem-posing dialogue within pre- and post-conferences around practice over one year of their work together in an elementary-level classroom. The context is an innovative programme in which cooperating teachers pursue their Master’s degree while undergraduates (preservice teachers) complete their elementary education degrees. Our analysis of talk about teaching during six coaching cycles as well as supporting documents illustrates how Jane’s mentoring supported reflective practices and disrupted a notion of a field experience as simply a place to ‘practice’ pedagogical knowledge with corrective feedback. Additionally, we explore the tensions in this approach to mentoring. This case study has implications for teacher educators who seek to bolster teacher preparation through the support of mentoring relationships.     

Hidden labor in the mentoring of pre-service teachers: Notes from a mentor teacher advisory council

This article argues that mentoring reflects a form of hidden labor within pre-service teacher education. Using Marx’s concern for the ways in which aspects of an economic system are rendered invisible, the article draws on discussions from an American mentor teacher advisory council to illuminate otherwise marginalized aspects of mentors’ work. Meeting data reveal challenging dynamics of initiative, complications in determining teaching opportunities, and unique positions taken up by mentors during transitions in authority. The authors argue for the creation of “intersection contexts” where the voices of various constituencies in the mentoring of pre-service teachers can be heard.     

Working together within a system: educative mentoring and novice teacher learning

Using a framework of activity theory, I follow one mentor/student teacher pair through a yearlong student teaching experience, investigating their interactions around the practice of educative co-planning. Evidence from multiple data sources collected over the course of one year is analyzed to understand the role co-planning played in the mentor/student teacher relationship, the experience of being a mentor, and in the development of the student teacher’s practices. Findings reveal the mentor and student teacher used the educative practice of co-planning to productively mediate tensions and navigate their relationship.     

How mentor principals interpret the mentoring process using metaphors

The study focused on how principal mentors perceived the mentoring process by means of the metaphors they used to represent it. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 principal mentors. Findings were analysed qualitatively, generating themes as an inductive process, grounded in the various metaphors articulated by participants. Analysis of the research findings revealed five themes based on principal mentors’ metaphors: exposure and mirroring, modelling, giving, empowering and supporting. Exploring the mentoring principals’ metaphors may help to improve both the mentoring process and the practical training of principal preparation programmes.     

Extending the apprenticeship of observation: how mentee experiences shape mentors

Although the importance of mentor teachers in clinical teacher preparation is well established, few researchers explore the social identity development of these individuals. Through our study we contribute to the body of research by exploring mentor teachers’ social identity development through the concept of Apprenticeship of Observation – specifically, how they felt their own mentoring experiences influenced their approaches to mentoring. The multi-case study includes findings about mentoring beliefs and practices during the laboratory school component of an Alternate Route to Licensure program. Incorporating semi-structured interviews and video analysis, the findings demonstrate how four mentor teachers’ prior experiences as mentees – including Alternate Route to Licensure, traditional teacher preparation programs, and inservice teaching – influenced their interactions with teacher candidates as mentors. Recommendations for practice and implications for future research are provided.     

Informal mentoring for aspiring school leaders: a phenomenological study

ABSTRACT

Informal mentoring had been previously identified as a vital component to leadership development and succession planning. Through a phenomenological approach, we sought to capture the lived experiences of aspiring school leaders pertaining to informal mentoring. Using open-ended questions and reflective activities, eight aspiring school leaders provided information about their experiences and characteristics of informal mentoring. Through a human science research perspective, four themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) defining informal mentoring, (b) characteristics of effective informal mentors, (c) constructive relationship, and (d) mentoring recommendations. Participants found their experiences with informal mentoring beneficial. There was a reported high level of trust between mentor and protégé and the process was flexible. Because the aspiring leaders sought to become school leaders in the near future, most were cognizant of the fact they needed to have quality mentors, but also be a mentor to new educators.     

Exploring the links between mentoring and work-integrated learning

The role of work-integrated learning (WIL) is a popular focus at many universities, including among academics in the business disciplines in Australia. This article explores whether a mentoring programme provided for female business and law students results in similar benefits as those reported for WIL activities and, hence, provides career- and study-related benefits for the participating students. While research into mentoring is not a new phenomenon, this qualitative study focuses on mentees as students who are assigned mentors from a range of organisations, rather than the typical studies which have both parties employed in an organisational context. The study explores the career-related and psycho-social benefits reported by students in a mentoring programme, including increased confidence, improved knowledge about their chosen profession, stronger career focus/understanding and, for some, opportunities leading to employment post-study. These benefits are then considered in relation to how they mirror the outcomes of WIL. While the sample size is small, the findings have implications for academics and career development professionals in higher education seeking to better integrate theoretical knowledge with the realities of the workplace, thereby helping to prepare students more effectively for their careers.     

Community engagement: mentor beliefs across training and experience

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this quantitative study was to understand how training and the development of the mentoring relationship impacts mentor beliefs across time within a therapeutic mentoring program called Campus Connections, a community engagement program that pairs university undergraduate and graduate students with youth from the local community in a mentoring relationship for an academic semester. Specifically, we studied how mentor beliefs are constructed at the start of the mentoring program, how these beliefs shift after four weeks of training, and how mentor beliefs change after participating in the mentoring process during an academic semester. Results indicated mentors held unhelpful mentoring beliefs prior to training and that training combined with the mentoring relationship created a positive impact on mentoring beliefs. Implications for the mentoring relationship and community engagement programs are discussed based on the trajectory of mentor beliefs within the study.     

高等教育与人文精神

新世纪高等教育呼唤人文精神的回归 ,克服功利主义的狭隘 ,培养学生的人文素质。高等学校要在办学理想上、课程建设上、校园文化的建设上重视人文精神。     

Rethinking the roles of mentor and mentee in the context of student suicide

Student suicides and attempted suicides are on the rise globally, and the numbers continue to climb steeply in most Westernized countries. School personnel remain untrained and uninformed in the area of suicide; few teachers or administrators can accurately identify the characteristics of suicidal behavior and fewer still have any knowledge of appropriate ways to deal with deeply troubled students. This article uses a powerful and tragic story of a student’s suicide as a catalyst for rethinking the structure and goals of mentoring relationships. A new approach, pairing novice teachers whose pre‐service education curriculum included specific training in recognizing and addressing the emotional needs of students with mentors experienced in real‐world classroom dynamics and the effects of school culture on children could improve the school experience for many students and potentially reduce the number of suicides or attempted suicides.     

大学生思想政治工作必须弘扬人文精神

弘扬人文精神是时代发展对大学生思想政治工作的要求 ,大学生思想政治工作在人文精神方面的缺位是导致思想政治工作效果差的原因之一 ,大学生思想政治工作只有实现与人文精神的结合 ,才能焕发出生机和活力。弘扬人文精神是新形势下大学生思想政治工作的必要内容     

人本视角下和谐校园文化建设的哲学解读

以中国古代＂人和＂观、欧洲人本主义精神、马克思主义＂和谐思想＂为和谐校园文化建设的哲学基石,解读了以人为本校园文化的整体性与层次性、独特性与包容性、开放性与选择性、影响性与辐射性的内涵特质。通过加强制度建设、文化建设、环境建设以实现高等教育的价值追求,达到构建和谐校园文化建设的目标。     

Emeriti faculty as mentors: the benefits and rewards of mentoring the next generation

ABSTRACT

This holistic single-case study reports on the benefits mentors derived from participating in the Increasing Minority Presence within Academia through Continuous Training (IMPACT) mentoring program. The IMPACT program was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Office for Broadening Participation in Engineering 15–7680 (awards #1542728 and #1542524). In this program, emeriti faculty were matched with underrepresented minority faculty in the engineering professoriate for career-focused mentorship. The conceptual framework of the Benefits of Being a Mentor grounded this study. Findings indicate mentors appreciate the opportunity to give back and remain engaged in the field, to relive past academic career experiences, and to support the next generation of engineering professors while adjusting to retirement. These findings aligned with the conceptual framework on three factors: rewarding experience, improved job performance, and generativity. Implications for administrators and faculty, as well as additional research areas, are discussed.     

人本主义视野下当代大学生人际交往障碍及对策探析

提高大学生心理素质、促进大学生健康发展,是当代高等教育发展的重要内容,人际交往的质量直接影响大学生"三观"的形成。文章列举了当代大学生人际交往中一些普遍性问题,从反人本主义角度分析问题原因,探讨解决问题对策,以提高当代大学生人际交往能力。     

Incidental vocabulary acquisition from listening to stories: a comparison between read-aloud and free storytelling approaches

Shared-book reading is a well-established intervention to foster vocabulary development. Factors influencing its effectiveness are, however, less well studied, particularly with regard to story-delivery. We contrasted a read-aloud with a free storytelling approach and tested effects on vocabulary learning. In the first study, 83 preschoolers aged three to six were told six stories in a randomised, single-blind and counterbalanced design. Stories were either read aloud or told freely and included rare target-words. Measures of target-word acquisition, receptive vocabulary, phonological working memory and speech comprehension were administered. There was a small to moderate learning gain (d = .37), but no effect of story-delivery. In a second study, 24 of the youngest and 24 of the oldest participants were tested again, using the same procedure but with stories designed to be more intrinsically motivating and age-appropriate. Results indicated negligible vocabulary gains (d = .08) and no effect of story-delivery, except for small differences in child behaviour during storytelling.