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.     

Experiences of beginning teachers in a school‐based mentoring program in Sweden

Even though teacher education has been successful in preparing students for their future profession, the classroom reality can differ greatly from the inservice training. Many novice teachers therefore find the transition from student teacher to inservice teacher overwhelming To support beginning teachers, mentoring programs—where more experienced teachers support novice teachers—have become commonplace in many schools worldwide. In Sweden, mentoring for beginning teachers has been a frequent feature of support since 2001. This study, conducted in Sweden, examines seven novice teachers and the impact the mentoring process had upon them during their first‐year teaching. Based on interviews, it was found that these experienced both professional and personal support from their mentors. The study also showed the significance of observant leaders within the mentorship program following up on the development of the mentor–mentee relationship.     

Mentoring support and the professional development of beginning teachers: a Chinese perspective

For a long time, there has been a tradition in China of experienced teachers helping beginning teachers. This empirical school study investigates the kinds of support that are provided by eight dyads of mentoring teacher and first‐year secondary school teachers in Guangzhou of southern China and the major factors affecting mentoring support. In addition, this research focuses on the professional development of first‐year teachers in areas of subject knowledge, student, teaching and classroom management. The findings reveal that mentors provide four forms of support: provision of information, mutual lesson observation, collaborative lesson preparation and discussion in the office. Factors affecting mentoring support include teaching workload, grade and subject, style of mentor–protégé interactions, relationships between mentor and mentee, incentives for the mentors, and collegial culture in the case study schools. It is notable that there are positive and negative developments perceived by the protégé and the foci of mentoring tend to be the teaching of content rather than curriculum and pedagogy.     

Effective Practices for Mentoring Beginning Middle School Teachers: Mentor's Perspectives

In order to improve student achievement, school systems must provide new teachers with support to become effective teachers more quickly. Educators frequently use mentoring to support new teachers and reach the goals of improved classroom performance as well as teacher retention. The intention in this study was to provide insights into the mentoring of beginning teachers working in the middle grades. In this exploratory case study, three elements of a mentoring model deemed necessary for the implementation of effective mentoring for middle school teachers are presented. First, the mentor must forge a trusting relationship with the new teacher. Second, the mentor must support and guide the new teacher in creating a classroom environment that is supportive of learning. Third, the mentor must be able to support and guide the new teacher in instructional strategies appropriate to the content and context of the classroom. Furthermore, this research highlighted a need for mentors to receive ongoing training in classroom management, instructional practices, and relationship building in order to remain effective mentors. Without effective trained mentors programs will fail to meet their goals of improving instruction and retaining teachers past their induction year.     

Beginning Elementary Science Teachers: Developing Professional Knowledge During a Limited Mentoring Experience

The professional development project reported on in this paper, the Beginning Elementary Science Teachers' (BEST) project, was based on the premise that the first years of elementary science teaching can be very important in the development of long-term quality science teaching. Specifically, we report on project experiences that allowed 13 beginning teachers to interact with experienced teachers in a university seminar and during school visits. Results show that these limited mentoring experiences can support the development of professional knowledge and discussion centers on factors that facilitate knowledge growth. Conclusions are presented that compare benefits of these limited mentoring experiences to those reported to be achieved in long-term mentoring programs.     

大学英语教师学习共同体叙事研究

一项跟踪某高校大学英语教师学习共同体的个案研究表明：以课堂教学研究为核心的教师学习共同体,从情感和知识技能两个维度促进了大学英语教师科研成长及身份转变。教师学习共同体打破以往自上而下的教师团队建设形式,有利于促进教师师徒传授和同伴互助,是普通大学英语教师专业发展的有效途径。     

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.     

The Effect of a Collaborative Mentoring Program on Beginning Science Teachers' Inquiry-based Teaching Practice

This study investigated how a collaborative mentoring program influenced beginning science teachers' inquiry-based teaching and their reflection on practice. The one-year program consisted of five one-on-one mentoring meetings, weekly science education seminars, weekly mentoring group discussions, and self-evaluation activities. The participants were three beginning science teachers and three mentors at the middle school level (7–9th grades) in an urban area of South Korea. For each beginning teacher, five lessons were evaluated in terms of lesson design/implementation, procedural knowledge, and classroom culture by using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol. Five aspects of the beginning teachers' reflections were identified. This study showed that a collaborative mentoring program focusing on inquiry-based science teaching encouraged the beginning teachers to reflect on their own perceptions and teaching practice in terms of inquiry-based science teaching, which led to changes in their teaching practice. This study also highlighted the importance of collaborative interactions between the mentors and the beginning teachers during the mentoring process.     

The road to culturally relevant science: Exploring how teachers navigate change in pedagogy

In this study, two middle‐school teachers who participated in a professional development program utilizing the transformative professional development (TPD) model are followed as they embarked upon becoming culturally relevant science teachers of Hispanic students. Using Ladson‐Billings (1994) theory of culturally relevant pedagogy, teacher interviews, focus groups, journals, and field notes are examined to reveal aspects of culturally relevant pedagogy that the participants translate into their daily science instructional practice in this longitudinal case study. Findings revealed TPD enabled participants to transform their practice to focus on culturally relevant science pedagogy resulting in a more effective instructional environment for their Hispanic students. Implications for further research on professional development and other supports for teachers integrating culturally relevant pedagogy are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., J Res Sci Teach 48: 170–198, 2011     

Mentoring and Beginning Teachers' Workplace Learning

Mentoring has been the focus of much attention in the recent literature on initial teacher education and induction and as such has become a 'foundation stone' of collaborative endeavours between universities and schools in the facilitation of teacher development. In 1998 some 220 beginning teachers and 245 supervisors and mentors in New South Wales government schools were surveyed and beginning teachers' professional learning observed closely in six case study schools in different settings across the state. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated the relevance of internship to initial teacher education programs and established the importance of mentoring support in beginning teachers' professional learning in the induction year. The case studies also identified key practices, conditions and professional interactions that sustained transmission, transactional and transformational approaches to teacher learning. The complementary qualitative and quantitative methodology provided strong evidence of the importance of the mentoring strategy.     

Effective mentoring for the next generation of early childhood teachers in Victoria,Australia

From reading the research literature, it is evident that making the transition from pre-service teacher to beginning teacher is a challenging experience. New to the profession teachers can experience self-doubt and feelings of anxiety about meeting expectations. What is valued at the start of their career is support, especially if it is ongoing and tailored to their needs. In this paper, I present data from the first mentoring programme for new to the profession early childhood teachers in Victoria, Australia – the State-wide Mentoring Program for Early Childhood Teachers (SWMP) (2011–2014). I provide an overview of this mentoring programme highlighting aspects considered most effective in supporting beginning early childhood teachers. I propose that developing a mentoring programme incorporating respectful, responsive, reciprocal and reflective elements, can enhance both mentor’s and mentee’s professional development and professional identity. The impact of this programme is evidenced by the voices of the mentors and mentees involved.     

Lesson observation,professional conversation and teacher induction

Induction programmes for newly-qualified teachers generally involve some combination of four interlocking components: a mentoring system; an expert system; a peer system and a self-reflective system (European Commission 2010). One activity that is commonly used in the mentoring system is lesson observation. This article presents a comparative analysis of post-observation conversations held by two mentor-teacher dyads as part of teacher induction in Ireland. The analysis focuses on how both mentors support the teachers in the construction of their professionality. Doing so requires the right blend of professional, social and personal support, and depends on a high level of awareness and expertise on the part of the mentor. The article identifies certain key differences in the approaches of both, asn makes the case that this kind of analysis offers much potential for the professional development of mentors.     

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.     

Positive and Negative Facets of Formal Group Mentoring: Preservice Teacher Perspectives

The use of mentoring within teacher education has become more common in recent years, however, there still seems to be a lack of research about formal group mentorship models as a pedagogical process. In my study, I presented knowledge about how a formal group mentorship model used during a teacher education program at a Swedish university has affected the student teachers’ professional development. The findings suggest that nearly all the student teachers describe the mentoring group conversations as beneficial as they have contributed to a strengthened socialization, identity and/or teacher role, a possibility to share experiences, hear others perspectives, and get support in the process of linking theoretical educational content and teaching activities. A few students expressed that the mentoring program has not contributed at all to their professional development.     

Electronically Mentoring to Develop Accomplished Professional Teachers

With nearly half of all new teachers leaving the classroom within 5 years, schools are faced with the challenge of retaining early-career teachers while simultaneously providing them with the support they need to develop into effective professionals. Mentoring novice teachers by pairing them with experienced teachers in schools is a widely adopted practice for addressing these needs; however, face-to-face mentoring is subject to challenges. A promising complement to face-to-face mentoring may be found in the innovative use of computer-mediated communications, such as online forums. In an effort to support, develop, and retain novice teachers, The College of William and Mary has partnered with the Center for Teacher Quality to create ENDAPT—Electronically Networking to Develop Accomplished Professional Teachers. ENDAPT is an asynchronous online forum that brings together novice teachers and teacher leaders in a virtual mentoring community. This article provides an overview of the program model and presents research findings from a study of participants’ postings using content analysis methodology to identify and describe the nature of professional conversations among mentors and novice teachers. Using grounded frameworks for mentoring conversations and for teacher competencies, the study evaluates the efficacy of online mentoring as a means of supporting and developing novice teachers.     

Becoming a teacher: encouraging development of teacher identity through reflective practice

Models of learning to teach recognize the important relationship between university and school settings. The roles that educators in each setting play in the development of effective beginning teachers are not discrete. Rather they complement and support one another. Building upon existing literature, and utilizing recent data, this paper challenges teacher educators to consider how pre‐service teacher core beliefs and perceptions affect the dynamics of learning to teach and the establishment of a teacher identity. To facilitate these, it is argued that a consultative mentoring model that acknowledges individuality is more effective in the growth of teacher identity than the more traditional supervision model that focuses mainly on socialization. Reflective practice is promoted as crucial and its development is the responsibility of all teacher educators—both at university and in the schools.     

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.     

Early Childhood Teachers Finding Voice among Peers: A Reflection on Practice

This reflective narrative explores the voices of two participants in the Early Childhood Professional Mentoring Group (ECPMG), created in response to our graduates’ concerns about their lack of support as they entered the field of inclusive early childhood education. Building on their existing relationships with each other, and with us as their former instructors, the group fostered a community in which our graduates could engage in reciprocal peer support and group problem solving, developing their skills as educators, professionals, and reflective change agents. This model contrasts with other forms of professional development that follow a set agenda facilitated by an assigned leader. The open structure and lack of hierarchy in the group invited spontaneous discussions of daily practices and challenges, and allowed different styles of expression to emerge. Our reflective narrative on our work with the ECPMG highlights the power of peers in providing induction and mentoring support, and the value to teacher educators of listening to multiple voices in hearing new teachers’ stories. We suggest that this type of mentoring be considered as an essential element of early childhood teacher education.