Discerning Pedagogical Quality in Preschool

A well‐developed and researched conceptual framework exists for identifying undergraduate students' conceptions of learning. In addition, research has been reported on teachers' conceptions of teaching as they relate to their conceptions of learning. The research reported in this paper takes the existing framework into a new area, postgraduate supervisors' conceptions of “research”. It is hypothesized that the development of a conceptual framework that identifies postgraduate students' conceptions of “research”, and how these articulate with the conceptions of research held by their research supervisors, will enable support mechanisms to be developed and used to assist students early in their candidature. In addition, supervisory practice will benefit from being aware of, and sensitive to, the variety and potential effect of these conceptions. While it is recognized that there are strong cultural influences on conceptions of research, this project has focused initially on the conceptions of research generally adopted by Western academic institutions. However, the students involved in the study were not necessarily of a Western educational background. This paper outlines the results of research undertaken to date in identifying supervisors' conceptions. In addition, it discusses supervisors' views on: the purpose of research and what characterizes “good” research and good researchers. Various strategies reported by supervisors to assist their students to develop more comprehensive and sophisticated conceptions of research are also discussed.     

Towards a Taxonomy of Mentoring

Initial Teacher Education in England and Wales is currently undergoing substantial change. In particular, the government has insisted on increased time for school‐based work, on the development of training partnerships between schools and higher education providers, including the transfer of training funds from universities to schools, and on a competence model of assessment. This article focuses on one of the new partnership training courses. Using two of the areas of competence, Subject Knowledge and Subject Application, it explores the reality of partnership from the perspectives of students, school mentors and university tutors as they work through the first year of the new course. Finally, the writers present a series of questions for all those involved as the basis for developing such courses and for ensuring the quality of teacher education.