Peer Group Mentoring Programmes in Finnish Higher Education––Mentors’ Perspectives

Peer mentoring is one of the most important guidance practices for first-year students entering higher education and academic life. We are interested in mentors’ roles and apply the ideas of group counseling in order to increase the understanding of peer mentoring. Other aspects of guidance––content, methods, and collaboration––are approached on the basis of the holistic career guidance model. The data were gathered via an online questionnaire (n?=?784) from 20 Finnish HE institutions. The results show that peer mentoring is a positive experience. The main emphasis is on the personal, psychosocial aspects of the student’s life. We identified four mentor types based on used activities. The experience of mentoring can vary according to the mentor type.     

How do teacher mentors perceive their role,does it matter?

Mentoring student-teachers and novice teachers constitutes a critical factor in teacher-education programmes and yet, little emphasis has been placed on the mentors themselves, particularly in relation to their own professional development (PD) and the construction of their identities. Does it really matter? This study investigates two groups of mentors: one group who received professional training and one group who received no professional training. The research questions address how mentors perceive their role, what preparation they receive to serve as effective mentors, and what are their professional needs. The study illuminates essential aspects of the mentors’ role perception and the impact of mentoring education on the professional identity of mentors. The implications are that low involvement in PD workshops could be linked to the uncertainty in mentors’ own self-perception as mentors. How mentors perceive their roles does matter if they wish to gain recognition by significant others within their institutions. Likewise, schools need to provide a supportive culture which is fundamental to identity construction.     

Adapting mentoring to individual differences in novice teacher learning: the mentor’s viewpoint

Being adaptive to the individual novice teacher is considered a condition for effective teacher mentoring. The aims of this study are therefore to explore (1) mentoring activities through which mentors intend to adapt to the individual novice teacher and (2) characteristics of adaptive mentors. Information was collected through on-site, post-mentoring conversation interviews with 18 mentors holding different mentoring conceptions, from different programs for Initial Teacher Education in the Netherlands. Four adaptive mentoring activities were identified: (1) aligning mutual expectations about the mentoring process, (2) attuning to the novices’ emotional state, (3) adapting the mentoring conversation to match the reflective capacity of the novice teacher, and (4) building tasks from simple to complex relative to the novices’ competence level. Adaptive mentors were (1) more likely to mention activities intended to support construction of personal practical knowledge and (2) less likely to mention activities intended to create a favourable context for novice teacher learning. Suggestions for using findings to enhance mentor adaptiveness are discussed.     

“Mentoring is Sharing the Excitement of Discovery”: Faculty Perceptions of Undergraduate Research Mentoring

Although an increasing number of studies have examined students’ participation in undergraduate research (UR), little is known about faculty perceptions of mentoring in this context. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate four aspects of mentoring UR, including how faculty define high-quality UR mentoring and operationalize it in practice; what the perceived benefits and challenges of UR participation are for mentors and students; how mentoring relates to faculty perceptions of their other roles (teachers, advisors, and scholars); and how participation in various communities of practice influences UR mentoring. Sixty faculty respondents at a private, midsized comprehensive institution completed an online survey. In a series of qualitative analyses, responses to open-ended questions were coded as instrumental, psychosocial, or blended. Analyses revealed that faculty perceptions of UR mentoring were impacted by faculty approach to UR mentoring and faculty rank. These findings may be helpful in the development of UR programs and faculty support programming.     

Employing the five‐factor mentoring instrument: analysing mentoring practices for teaching primary science

Primary science education is a concern around the world and quality mentoring within schools can develop pre‐service teachers' practices. A five‐factor model for mentoring has been identified, namely, personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modelling, and feedback. Final‐year pre‐service teachers (mentees, n = 211) from three Turkish universities were administered a previously validated instrument to gather perceptions of their mentoring in primary science teaching. ANOVA indicated that each of these five factors was statistically significant (p<.001) with mean scale scores ranging from 3.36 to 4.12. Although mentees perceived their mentors to provide evaluation feedback (95%), model classroom management (88%), guide their preparation (96%), and outline the science curriculum (92%), the majority of mentors were perceived not to assist their mentees in 10 of the 34 survey items. Professional development programmes that target the specific needs of these mentors may further enhance mentoring practices for advancing primary science teaching.     

Graduate student/faculty mentoring relationships: Who gets mentored,how it happens,and to what end

Given the importance of mentoring in the academic context, this study proposed five objectives. Analyses of surveys from 145 students across 12 universities and diverse disciplines, revealed first of all, a demographic profile of the typical graduate student protégé and faculty mentor. Second, ten diverse communication strategies emerged that demonstrate how students initiate a mentoring relationship. Third, protégé evaluations of their initiation attempts revealed their efforts to be somewhat ineffective and unduly difficult. Fourth, students reported their mentors to provide primarily psychosocial, rather than career support. And fifth, proteges characterized their mentoring relationships as extremely positive and satisfying. Results throughout are, for the most part, independent of both protégé and mentor demographics (including ethnicity).     

An Exploration of the Relationships between Mentor Recruitment,the Implementation of Mentoring,and Mentors’ Attitudes

Mentoring of new teachers is generally examined from the viewpoint of the mentees. In the present study, mentoring is explored based on reports from mentors within the context of the Israeli induction program. Recruitment variables (selection and training) were examined in relation to mentoring implementation (frequency, initiation, regularity, and content), and mentors’ perceptions and attitudes (towards matching, role conflict, and the mentoring experience). The relationships of gender and school level to implementation and attitudes were also examined. Data were collected by a questionnaire from a national sample of 118 mentors and through in-depth interviews with 14 mentors. Findings indicate that mentor selection, training, gender, and school level can have important implications for how mentors function and how they perceive mentoring.     

Undergraduate students’ attitudes towards mistakes in learning and academic achievement

The objective of the present study was to better understand a relatively under-researched topic, namely, undergraduate students’ attitudes towards mistakes and how their attitudes relate to academic achievement. A series of online surveys were administered to a sample of 207 first- and second-year undergraduate students. Using structural equational modelling, a hypothesised model was proposed to evaluate the following four research questions: (1) What is the effect of students’ trust in their instructor on students’ achievement goals? (2) What is the relationship between students’ achievement goals and their attitudes towards mistakes? (3) Is students’ attitudinal behaviour towards mistakes predictive of their perception of feedback? (4) Is students’ openness to discussing mistakes (ODM) and attitudinal behaviours predictive of their academic achievement? Both direct and indirect effects were found. Direct effects indicated that students’ trust in their instructor predicted achievement goals, students’ achievement goals differentially predicted attitudes towards mistakes, students’ ODM predicted perceptions of feedback, and students’ attitudinal behaviours predicted academic achievement. Students’ trust in their instructor and achievement goals had indirect effects on students’ achievement.     

Student teachers’ beliefs about the teacher’s role in inclusive education

The main aim of this research is to examine the basic features of student teachers’ professional beliefs about the teacher’s role in relation to teaching mainstream pupils and pupils with developmental disabilities. The starting assumption of this analysis is that teacher professional development is largely dependent upon teachers’ beliefs about various facets of their professional work. These concepts strongly influence the way that teachers teach and the way that they develop as teachers. The participants in the research are 314 student teachers at the Faculty of Teacher Education of the University of Zagreb who are being prepared to teach in lower grades of primary school. The beliefs were explored using a metaphor technique derived from cognitive theory of metaphor. The differences between beliefs about the perceived teacher role in general, and the perceived teacher role in the education of pupils with developmental disabilities were analysed. The results indicate that the dominant belief about the teacher’s role in teaching mainstream pupils is of the teacher as a transmitter of knowledge, while the findings regarding the dominant belief about the teacher’s role in teaching pupils with developmental difficulties appeared to be self-cantered orientation. No differences were found between student teachers at different study levels. The findings are discussed in the light of the curriculum of initial teacher education.     

How an Evolution View of Workplace Mentoring Relationships Helps Avoid Negative Experiences: The Developmental Relationship Mentoring Model in Action

In this paper, we explore how the use of a specific mentoring model focusing on the evolution of the relationship between mentor and mentee, may influence the incidence of failure. In our research we employed a case study methodology to examine a regional public service mentoring scheme in the UK where a developmental relationship mentoring model had been developed and used to guide practice. Findings indicated toxicity and negative outcomes may be positively influenced by mentor motivation and emotional intelligence, and can be avoided when there is awareness of how relationships develop and evolve. For example, the use of contracting in the early stages can limit the mismatched expectations that provoke disappointment, but equally mentor actions at other stages play key roles in reducing potential failure. Our study has implications for the enhancement of mentor training and scheme coordination as well as contributing to the understanding of negative mentoring relationships.     

孔子的教师观及其现代价值

本文从“温故而知新,可以为师矣”、“温而厉,威而不猛,恭而安”、“爱之,能勿劳乎?忠焉,能勿诲乎”、“君子不器”等四个方面探讨了孔子的教师观及其现代价值,正确认识孔子的这些教师观,对当今教育有很好的借鉴意义。     

形象的哲学--比较波特莱尔与李金发的象征主义诗歌形象和人生态度

形象是象征主义的基础。波特莱尔与李金发的象征主义诗歌形象具有共通性,但通过对二者思想渊源与历史背景的分析,可看出二者的相似形象所涵有的不同的人生态度。前者的诗歌形象在颓废中实现对人生的超越,后者的诗歌形象在苦闷中抒发对人生的执著。