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.     

Effects of Mentoring Programs on New Teacher Retention: A Literature Review

Building upon previous literature reviews, this article highlights research and evaluation efforts regarding the effectiveness of mentoring programs for new teacher retention in the USA since 2005. Through the analysis of various mentoring program components, different research methods used, and major findings from these studies, we discuss the non‐linearity and complexity of both the mentoring process itself and the study of mentoring on new teacher retention. Based on our review, we offer recommendations for researchers and decision‐makers to enhance the quality of such studies and maximize the use of the findings in improving mentoring programs and enhancing teacher retention.     

Learning for You and Learning for Me: Mentoring As Professional Development for Mentor Teachers

Professional development (PD) opportunities for teachers most commonly take place outside the classroom and are typically designed to address specific components of teachers’ instruction or curriculum. However, there are other activities that take place within the classroom that may have a profound impact on the PD of a teacher. We sought to gain a deeper understanding of the influence that placing a teacher in a mentor role can have on their PD and practice. Thus, we researched the influence of mentor teachers’ work with university-level STEM education majors by engaging in teaching a limited series of STEM inquiry-based lessons in the mentors’ classrooms. Surveys of the mentor teachers indicated that there were many positive benefits for mentors, including gaining new ideas, increased reflection on their practice, increased engagement of students, and in some cases shifts in practice.     

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.     

Toward Identifying Pedagogical Knowledge for Mentoring in Primary Science Teaching

Final year preservice teachers' perceptions of their mentoring in primary science teaching were gathered through surveys from three separate studies. The three studies (n = 59, n = 331, n = 60) provided an indication of the degree of mentoring preservice teachers perceived they received with mentoring practices linked to Pedagogical Knowledge. This research argues that mentors require pedagogical knowledge of primary science for guiding mentees with planning, timetabling, preparation, implementation, classroom management strategies, teaching strategies, science teaching knowledge, questioning skills, problem-solving strategies, assessment techniques, and developing viewpoints on science pedagogy. The key study findings (n = 331, from nine Australian universities involved in primary teacher education) indicated that 55% or more mentees had not received Pedagogical Knowledge for primary science teaching in each of the associated mentoring practices (mean score range: 2.60–2.91, standard deviation range: 1.10–1.32). The study concludes that mentors require further professional development to ensure that preservice teachers (mentees) receive adequate pedagogical knowledge for teaching primary science, which will involve significant collaboration between universities and schools.     

“三明治”教学模式下的“专业导师制”实践

台州学院土木工程实施“三明治”教学模式,交通土建作为大土木的专业方向,存在学生专业学习时间过短的问题。为了发挥“三明治”教学模式的优势和促进学生专业学习,以加强专业教学和培养学生专业技能为目的,制定并实施了“专业导师制”教学方案,同时形成了一整套评价体系,通过效果评价表明“专业导师制”实施,使交通土建学生专业学习得到有效的加强,保证了三明治教学有效实施。     

Educational Practice in Leadership Mentoring: The Singapore Experience

Findings of a study on the practice of school management learned through mentoring reveal that leading surfaced prominently as the prime aspect of what could be learned through formal mentoring and could be put into practice on the job. These principals, who have the opportunity to learn through mentoring, suggest their learning and practice of leading primarily through relating with people. The three features involved are: leading through relating with people actively, promoting trust in relating with people, and serving as worthy models in their dedication to service. As such, the learning of leading through formal mentoring could be of significance in the professional development of aspiring principals. It highlights a known practice of leading, learned through leadership mentoring, for an unknown future. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Identification of the Most Critical Content Knowledge Base for Middle School Science Teachers

Much has been said about what science content students need to learn (e.g., Benchmarks for Science Literacy, National Science Education Standards). Less has been said about what science content teachers need to know to teach the content students are expected to learn. This study analyzed four standards documents and assessment frameworks to identify core middle school physical science teacher content knowledge. Analysis across all four documents identified critical middle school physical science content and the relative weightings of this content. This parsimonious selection of content synthesized from these major sources provides guidelines researchers, assessment developers, and professional development providers can use in determining how to expend limited time and other resources.     

Collaborative Mentorship: A Mentoring Approach to Support and Sustain Teachers for Equity and Diversity

In this article, I propose collaborative mentorship (CM) as a mentoring approach to support and sustain teachers in diversity and equity education. CM is theorized as a mentoring relationship grounded in critical dialog between mentor and mentee. Drawing on research conducted in a culturally, racially, linguistically, and socially diverse secondary school in Southern Ontario, Canada, this article examines tensions teachers experience with equity and diversity and the knowledge base necessary for such a mentoring approach. As the schools become more diverse, it is vital that teachers seek out new approaches that respond to the changing social contexts. The findings of my research have implications for teacher professional development and teacher training in discovering new ways to support in diverse classrooms.     

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.     

学科教师的困惑:在知识教学与品德教育之间

在知识教学与品德教育之间,学科教师面临着艰难的困惑与抉择,这也是新旧教育观念冲突下的必然产物。在旧有的教育观念下,学科教师的核心任务就是传授本学科的知识,由此而形成了以知识为中心的学科教学体系。而在新的教育理念下,学科教师的教育使命显然不只是教知识,而是培养健全的人。因此,对于学科教师而言,知识教学与品德教育是不可分离的,学科教师应从自身的学科特点出发来积极参与到德育工作之中,共同实现培养健全的人的教育使命。这也是解决当下德育困境的一条重要途径。     

The Mentoring Relationship as a Complex Adaptive System: Finding a Model for Our Experience

Mentoring theory and practice has evolved significantly during the past 40 years. Early mentoring models were characterized by the top-down flow of information and benefits to the protégé. This framework was reconceptualized as a reciprocal model when scholars realized mentoring was a mutually beneficial process. Recently, in response to rapidly changing organizational and social environments, scholars have explored other models of mentoring such as developmental networks. However, as we, the authors, reflect on our own experience of an informal mentoring process in an academic context we find existing models inadequately describe our experience. The model that best fits our story is a complex adaptive systems (CAS) perspective of the mentoring relationship, and we offer this lens to reconfigure current models.     

Learning from Rookie Mistakes: Critical Incidents in Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching Science to Teachers

While there is a growing literature focused on doctoral preparation for teaching about science teaching, rarely have recommendations extended to preparation for teaching science content to teachers. We three doctoral students employ self-study as a research methodology to investigate our developing pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science to teachers during a mentored internship in an elementary teacher professional development program. With our mentor, we examine critical incidents in the experience that supported new insights about teaching teachers and about ways in which beginning teacher educators need to develop their existing pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science to students in order to teach science effectively to teachers. We emphasize ways in which doctoral internships can support this learning and how our respective cultures shaped our interactions with and perceptions of teachers as learners.     

Positioning Mentoring as a Coach Development Tool: Recommendations for Future Practice and Research

Current thinking in coach education advocates mentoring as a development tool to connect theory and practice. However, little empirical evidence exists to evaluate the effectiveness of mentoring as a coach development tool. Business, education, and nursing precede the coaching industry in their mentoring practice, and research findings offered in these domains could be drawn upon to position mentoring as sports coaching development tool. Given the remote basis of some of mentor–coach relationships in sports coaching, additional learning can be drawn from mentoring conducted by virtual or electronic mediums. This article concludes with a series of reflective questions arising from research findings in other domains, designed to engage the potential coaching organization with the mentoring process.     

Mentoring in Contexts of Cultural and Political Friction: Moral Dilemmas of Mentors and Their Management in Practice

This paper examines the nature of moral dilemmas mentors from three different national groups (Jewish, Druze, and Arab) encounter in their work in Israeli Arab schools, how they manage these dilemmas in practice, and how the nature of particular dilemmas might connect to their management strategies. Given the multicultural and politically conflictive context of the Israeli society, a cultural and political reading of in-service mentors’ moral dilemmas reveals that mentors’ encounter and management of recurrent moral dilemmas is embedded in cultural and political issues in a way that seem to hinder their mentoring practice. Preparation programs for mentors need to highlight awareness of mentors’ own culture and that of their mentees in order to implement a culturally and politically responsive practice.     

外语教师同伴指导评价体系的初步构建

作为一项教师专业发展举措,外语教师同伴指导在西方教师教育和培训实践中得到了较多的关注和较为广泛的运用,为我国的外语教师专业发展提供了新的视角。然而,在理论研究和具体实践中,尚缺乏对于外语教师同伴指导评价环节的系统思考。基于同伴指导所倡导的民主沟通、 协商反思、 合作共赢的价值诉求,本文尝试以第四代评估为理论基础,在厘清评价基本原则、 内容与形式的基础上初步构建起外语教师同伴指导评价体系,服务于教师专业发展实践。     

Initial Characteristics and Mentoring Satisfaction of College Women Mentoring Youth: Implications for Training

Being a youth mentor is popular among college students, yet little is known about how their initial characteristics are related to mentoring satisfaction. Survey data from college women enrolled in a youth mentoring program (n = 158) and a comparison group (n = 136) were analyzed to determine how initial characteristics of youth mentors (a) differ from comparisons and (b) are associated with mentors’ satisfaction. Mentors reported higher autonomy, cultural sensitivity, and lower depression pre-participation than the comparison group, and their pre-participation GPA, cognitive empathy, and depression predicted post-participation mentoring satisfaction. Implications for mentor training are discussed.     

Knowledge Construction and Personal Relationship: Insights About a UK University Mentoring and Coaching Service

This article examines interview data from 12 mentors/coaches and eight of their clients in order to explore a mentoring and coaching service among UK university staff. Both mentors/coaches and clients were administrative or academic employees of the Institute of Education or affiliated colleges at London University, UK. Their roles related to the administration for, or leadership of, teaching programs as well as educational research and consultancy projects pursued by the institute. The mentors/coaches in this service aimed to construct or co‐construct knowledge with their clients rather than to transmit advice to them. The author explores the learning of mentors/coaches and clients, conceptualizing their “co‐construction” of knowledge as either collaborative construction or as participation. She examines the link between the construction of knowledge and personal relationship, considering the personal relationship both of mentor/coach with clients, and among mentors/coaches themselves. Additionally, the author draws on the divide between functional and personal. She concludes by considering implications from the findings about mentoring and coaching. Emphasized is their potential to play a subversive role within the established functional systems of an institution, if mentoring and coaching prioritize personal relationship.     

引领与协作——社会性别视角下高校女教师的师徒生活研究

师徒制作为重要的在职教师培训模式之一,具有久远的历史渊源。现代师徒制是在对现代学徒制的借鉴和对职业教育的反思基础上产生并加以运用的。师徒生活通过提升教学理念、促进反思性教学、塑造职业性格而提升了高校女教师的课堂生活质量,通过缓解情感危机、养成心理健康、传承职业情感而丰富了女教师的日常生活体验,因女性独特的性别身份对于师生生活的有效性产生了积极的推动作用。