Operationalizing the mentoring processes as perceived by teacher mentors

ABSTRACT

Mentoring plays a critical role in providing a quality professional experience for pre-service teachers in their initial teacher education. There have been numerous studies about pre-service teacher mentoring, yet actual mentoring practice still remains varied and poorly understood. Consequently, there is a need for mentoring processes that can enhance graduate teacher quality. In response to this call, this study aims to elucidate an understanding of how mentoring is operationalized, as perceived by the teacher mentor. Semi-structure interviews, with experienced teacher mentors, provided understanding on mentoring practices used within differing school contexts. These findings increase our understanding of actual mentoring processes that are used during the different phases of support for the preservice teachers. Understanding how the mentor–mentee relationship is operationalized has implications for supporting and enhancing quality mentoring experiences.     

Peer mentoring: engaging pre‐service teachers in mentoring one another

This article discusses a peer mentoring teacher education initiative that aims at developing pre‐service teachers’ capacities to participate successfully in learning communities, both during their initial teacher education and throughout their teaching careers. Peer mentoring utilizes the latest conceptualization of mentoring, that of co‐mentoring by Bona et al. or that proposed by Hargreaves and Fullan, where all teachers give and receive support. Such a conceptualization challenges the traditional assumption that the mentor knows best and is consistent with the latest approaches to teacher professional development, where teachers are encouraged to participate in learning communities. A peer mentoring teacher education initiative is described and three essential elements are highlighted.     

Mentoring in Action on a Primary PGCE Course

Abstract

School‐based mentors are taking increased responsibility for the initial training of student teachers as a result of government policy to lengthen the proportion of time students spend in school during their training. The role of the mentor is critical in the development of a partnership model of initial teacher education (ITE), involving close collaboration between higher education institutions (HEIs) and schools. This article draws on our research into the practice of mentoring on the one‐year Primary Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at the Chichester Institute. Through observations of mentoring sessions at school we analyse the process of mentoring in action. Drawing on mentor observations and interviews with mentors, students and college (link) tutors we examine the diverse nature of mentoring and identify some of the common qualities of good mentoring practice.     

Mentoring triad: an alternative mentoring model for preservice teacher education?

Within many preservice teacher education programs in Australia, mentoring is used as the overarching methodology for the professional placement. The professional placement is considered to be a key component of learning to teach, and typically a dyad mentoring model is utilized. However, it is reported that many preservice teachers experience a less than successful placement when a dyad model is used. This research explored an alternative mentoring model that placed two preservice teachers with a classroom teacher and investigated the mentoring that transpired. The research examined the interactions that occurred between the triad members, in particular those that took place between the two preservice teachers as peers. A theoretical framework that focused on a holistic mentoring model was utilized to frame the research and analyze the data. It was found that the use of a mentoring triad extended the scope of mentor support that can be provided to preservice teachers.     

Mentors' Perceptions of Their Roles in School-based Teacher Training in England and Germany

This research project is located in the present context of raising standards in initial teacher training. It is designed to identify similarities and differences in the way in which teachers perceive themselves in the role of 'mentor' in school-based teacher training in England and Germany. The aim of this study is to compare and evaluate concepts and procedures in mentoring with reference to the cultural and structural framework determining each setting. It focuses on the mentor's role in terms of 'adviser', 'trainer', 'partner', 'friend', 'assessor' and examines the extent to which these aspects of mentoring influence the development of beginning teachers. Following a qualitative approach, data collection took place by means of questionnaires and recorded interviews. By giving mentors their own voice in the form of direct speech statements, the data represent a range of individual perspectives. Aspects of similarity and difference between the two systems are used to raise generic as well as culturally specific issues and are discussed in relation to one another and to other research findings. Through the evaluation of the different approaches to mentoring it is hoped that further insights and a deeper understanding of the mechanisms involved can be gained.     

Support and Challenge in Learning to Teach: the role of the mentor

The increased emphasis on school‐based programmes as part of initial teacher education has resulted in renewed efforts to forge more effective partnerships between higher education institutions and schools. The University of Bath has established a mentor development programme to ensure that subject mentors have an opportunity to examine ways to engage novice teachers in critical reflection about their practice while providing the support and challenge necessary to help them develop as teachers. This study is based on experienced mentors’ and their perspective on their work with novice teachers and it is a follow‐up to earlier research based on Daloz’ model (1986, Effective Teaching and Mentoring, San Francisco, Jossey Bass) of support and challenge. It examines an emerging mentoring pedagogy through which experienced mentors attempt to engage novice teachers in shaping their own vision of teaching. Three mentor profiles are discussed—the laissez‐faire, the collaborative and the imperial mentor.     

Educating pre-service teachers: towards a critical inquiry workforce

ABSTRACT

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers identify a range of supposedly demonstrable capabilities for graduate teachers. Elaborations privilege the realization of Standards through mentoring, and feedback from senior colleagues. As manifestations of the logic of neo-liberalism they operate as audit technologies for pre-service teachers and their learning. In this paper, we argue for the preparation of graduate teachers who can engage in critical inquiry as means for expanding professional learning, developing pedagogical practices and improving student learning. We report on the preparation of 4th year pre-service teachers to undertake critical inquiry into an aspect of pedagogic practice during their final practicum placement. We first address instrumental framings of teacher preparation. A case is then made for critical practitioner inquiry as an alternative. Empirical data is drawn from the ‘practice architectures’ of an Australian teacher education program as these relate to developing pre-service teacher inquiry designs. We present inquiry questions, abstracts and reflections developed by pre-service teachers over a seven-year period in two discipline groupings, Health and Physical Education and Mathematics and Science, as evidence of possibilities for preparing graduates for a critical inquiry workforce. We conclude in arguing that these possibilities are vital in times framed by a narrowing technical and standardized educational environment.     

Understanding Candidates’ Learning Relationships with their Cooperating Teachers: A call to Reframe my Pedagogy

Abstract

This self-study frames the influences of cooperating (or mentor) teachers on teacher candidates in my teacher education classroom as an action-at-a-distance on my pedagogy of teacher education; that is, a tacit set of influences and expectations that teacher candidates develop about my course before it even begins. Interviews with teacher candidates enabled me to develop two conceptual metaphors to think about the relationships candidates develop with cooperating teachers on practicum. The first, freedom with foundation, reflects the fact that teacher candidates hope to have considerable autonomy in their practicum placements while simultaneously having the support from their cooperating teacher to receive meaningful, regular, feedback. The second, power and performance, names the tensions teacher candidates feel in experiencing the practicum as a site of performance rather than as a site of learning. I offer some specific pedagogical ways in which I have responded to these issues before making a turn to self. I examined journal entries from my own experiences as a teacher candidate 20 years ago with a view to understanding the ways in which the two metaphors may have played a role in my own development as a teacher. This research compels me to attend explicitly to action-at-at-distance forces in my teacher education classroom, such as candidates’ relationship with cooperating teachers and my relationships with my former cooperating teachers.     

Arriving on a fast track: Perceptions of teachers from an alternative licensing program about their first four years in the classroom

Abstract

In a 4‐year study of new teachers who completed the MINT (Massachusetts Institute for New Teachers) alternative teacher‐licensing program, we found that this particular fast‐track model recruited a group of highly committed new teachers. However, these new teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of their teacher education program. Many of the teachers tended to use traditional teaching methods. Some regarded their professional development and mentoring experiences as insufficient. Some believed their potential for school leadership was not being fully realized. A similar set of perceptions were reported by a group of new teachers who had completed college‐based teacher preparation programs, although the college program‐prepared teachers tended to give higher ratings to their teacher preparation program and to use a wider variety of teaching strategies in the classroom.     

Why some graduating teachers choose not to teach: teacher attrition and the discourse-practice gap in becoming a teacher

ABSTRACT

Teacher attrition is a perennial problem in many countries around the globe. With attrition especially pronounced amongst early career teachers, efforts to retain and sustain these teachers have highlighted the importance of effective mentoring and support programs within schools. However, less is known about the perceptions and experiences of graduates of initial teacher education (ITE) programs who choose not to enter the teacher profession, therefore not benefiting from such mentoring and support, and subsequently being lost to the profession, potentially forever. Therefore, this paper reports on a qualitative case study that investigated the reasons why one group of graduates from an ITE program in Hong Kong chose not to teach. Using in-depth interviews and grounded in a theory of teacher identity construction, the results reveal how the participants struggled to construct their preferred professional identities, in particular during a teaching practicum, and the role this played in their decision not to enter the teaching profession. Implications for how teacher educators can better support preservice teachers as they struggle to construct their professional identities are considered and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Exploring the dyad: the relationship establishment between a novice physical education teacher and his mentor

The retention of new teachers is a noteworthy issue among physical education teachers. One way to combat attrition is with the implementation of induction programs that have a strong emphasis on mentoring. Mentoring creates a growth-in-connection for the novice physical education teacher as well as the mentor. The relational cultural theory (RCT) develops relationships based in situational boundaries between the mentor and the mentee. RCT explores the nature of human development based on the individuals involved in these relationships. The purpose of the study was to explore the perception of the relationship between a novice physical education teacher and his mentor and to determine if the mentoring relationship between the participants reflected the RCT model. Observations, interviews, and the researcher’s journal were used as a means for data collection. In this study, meaningful relationships occurred in the working relationship, as well as the personal relationship. It was indicated that when meaningful relationships are established, novice physical education teachers are more confident in their teaching abilities and are more likely stay in the profession.     

The role of dispositions in the development of pedagogical knowledge for pre-service science teacher education

ABSTRACT

Research on teacher education, especially on the development of teacher educators, is limited. This paper considers the role of dispositions in the development of pedagogical knowledge (PK) for science teacher educators (STEs), across stages of career. It argues that beliefs and perceptions shift and change along with, but not directly related to, what STEs pay attention to and when they pay attention to it. The eight participants were asked to identify the critical experiences (CEs) of their career that impacted on their development of PK. CEs were analyzed using Morine-Dershimer and Kent’s (1999) model of PK as a framework, but also to identify common emergent themes across participants and common emergent themes for individuals that led to identification of patterns of actions and finally, participant’s dispositions. The notion that beliefs, dispositions and PK are all developed for each individual at their own pace and in their own way is reinforced.     

Developing Relationships: significant episodes in professional development

Abstract

Mentoring as a practice in initial teacher education has been adopted at a rate which has exceeded the conceptual development of the phenomenon itself. This paper seeks to address this gap between practice and conceptual development by reporting on a study of six student teachers in which significant instances of learning to teach in mentoring relationships are explored. The analysis concludes that the triggers for development in the proteges are often unanticipated and signal periods where the protege is ill at ease. Development, in these terms, involves moving to more comfortable states. It is argued that, in many ways, such conclusions are not consonant with current policy directions in the field of teacher development. Further, the study uses a Vygotskian framework to argue for the centrality of the relationship between mentor and protege in the cognitive development of the novices. To this end a research agenda is proposed.     

Japanese Elementary Teachers’ Learning Experiences of Physical Education Professional Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate Japanese elementary teachers’ professional development experiences in physical education in Japan. Participants were nine teachers from four public elementary schools. Data sources included semi-structured face-to-face interviews and annual physical education professional development portfolios. Three themes emerged from the data analyses: (a) the importance of mentoring for teachers’ growth, (b) annual in-house physical education portfolios as a professional development tool, and (c) the dilemma of being an independent learner in collective culture. The findings suggest that having access to past portfolios developed by previous teachers helped the Japanese elementary teachers to conceptualize the contents of professional learning that facilitated their transitions when they changed their teaching settings. To continuously grow as a teacher, they need to become independent learners who can make decisions about their instruction, identify the weaknesses of their instruction, and understand the impact of their pedagogy on their students’ learning.     

Toward a Pedagogy of Transformation

An on-going challenge in teacher education programs is how best to support new teachers in connecting their university coursework with their professional identity development and pedagogical practice in the schools. The reading and writing of case studies is one promising strategy teacher educators have explored as a means of assisting teachers in developing and cultivating a self-reflective, theory and practice reflexive, style of learning in the teacher education classroom and beyond. In the present paper, I present a case study of my own journey as a developmental and educational psychologist responsible for co-teaching a secondary teacher education course called "Adolescent Development for Teachers", in which having student-teachers research and write-up a case study of a single adolescent became the focus of the course and our pedagogy. I describe events that brought about the use of the case study in the course, the influence the use of the case study had on myself as an instructor as well as the students, and what students say are the educational benefits and difficulties of completing the adolescent case study. Implications for infusing a developmental focus into teacher education programs are discussed.     

Trainee teachers’ experiences of teaching practicum: Issues,challenges, and new possibilities

Abstract

This paper focuses on a qualitative case study concerned with teaching practicum as a pivotal component of teacher education in Malawi. It addresses some of the issues and concerns associated with workload, ill-defined mentoring support, and implementation of certain pedagogical orientations during teaching practicum placement. Purposive sampling was used to select participants. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that trainee teachers undergo varied and often challenging experiences during teaching practicum. To counter some of the concerns, suggestions are made to improve certain aspects of teaching practicum. There is need for authentic school – college partnerships, improved structures of school-based professional support, and a deeper awareness of the complexity of learner-centred pedagogy. It is imperative that teacher educators engage with these findings to further improve the design of teaching practicum and the overall quality of teacher education and teaching in Malawi.     

Learning to look through the eyes of our students: action research as a tool of inquiry

Abstract

The story we are about to tell occurred when Gayle was a middle school science teacher and graduate student in Joanne's seminar on the study of teaching. Gayle was trying to make sense of her science students' indifference toward the environment, an attitude that concerned her as an environmentalist. She turned her inquiry into an action research project that sought to answer the question, ‘What are the assumptions that my middle school students have about their relationship with the environment?’ Joanne was mentoring Gayle in her action research study, and at the same time exploring Gayle's perspective as an action researcher. Now, several years later, we are both action researchers and teacher educators and understand that we have been looking through the eyes of our students in order to become scholars of our own teaching.     

Articulating the Relationships Between Theory and Practice in Science Teaching: A model for teacher professional development

In-depth analysis of science teachers' idiosyncratic instructional behaviors combined with the notion of deliberated 'teacher reflection' as a means of improving professional teaching practice has become one of the most pervasive concepts to influence science teacher education during the past decade. Sweeney and coworkers have described how the notion of teacher reflection and Lytle and Cochran-Smith's typology of teacher research were utilised to examine the relationships between a beginning high school chemistry teacher's articulated personal practice theories and his actions as demonstrated by his curricular decisions and instructional practices. Using data drawn from the previous study, this report focuses on examining how the methodological approach taken in the investigation (explicit, deliberate articulation and analysis of a teacher's instructional behaviors and rationales within the context of a mentoring relationship) may serve as a useful model for teacher professional development across all areas of instruction.     

Peer Mentoring: A Citizenship Entitlement at Tanfield School

This paper describes the experience and benefits of peer led education at Tanfield School and how this led to the development of a peer mentoring scheme in the school, which was linked to citizenship education. The project aimed to strengthen existing links and ease the transition of pupils from feeder primary schools to the secondary school. The second aim was to improve the key skills of the mentors and have an impact on their learning. The project involved year 10 older students mentoring pupils in year 7. The findings of the evaluation are reported and it is argued that the aims were met.     

Reflective Dialogue in Teams: a vehicle to support belief change in student teachers

This paper presents an approach to belief change in teacher education programmes. Although belief change may constitute a more relevant goal for initial teacher education than knowledge transmission and competence attainment per se, relatively few models or methods have been put forward that can help student teachers to become aware of, knowledgeable about, and actively involved in changing and (re) constructing their own teaching beliefs. The model of study teams is presented as a relevant approach to teaching in teacher education, together with some preliminary evaluations regarding its implementation. It shows that utilising study teams can have a strong impact on teacher education programmes as well as on student teachers’ thinking.