Learning to Lesson Plan: A Mentor’s Impact on Pre-service Teachers

Abstract

Lesson planning is considered an essential skill of teachers. As pre-service teachers first encounter the fundamental principles of planning for instruction, the complexity of planning to support the rigorous learning goals of content, curriculum, and individual student needs could be daunting. The mixed methods study explored how mentoring influenced early-program preservice teachers' self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) and progression through stages of concerns (Fuller, 1969) in relation to lesson planning. Participants, secondary early-program pre-service teachers enrolled in a Midwestern teacher preparation program, included a target group who received mentoring and a comparison group who did not. Using constant comparison techniques guided by the theoretical frameworks, researchers gathered and analyzed qualitative target group data from participant reflections and mentor conference memos. Researchers collected and analyzed quantitative data using Likert-type survey questions also linked to the frameworks of this study. Integrated findings from the qualitative and quantitative data revealed that when a mentor provided metacognitive modeling, addressed anxiety, recognized incremental victories, and offered focused feedback, pre-service teachers' concerns were addressed and their efficacy increased related to lesson planning.

The mentoring experience of Jordanian pre-service science teachers

“…Through school experience, pre-service teachers (mentees) are guided by experienced teachers (mentors) in schools. Mentoring activities are an important component in teacher preparation programs (Ndebele & Legg-Jack, 2022) and have a positive impact on mentees' pedagogical practices (Gomez Johnson, Schaffer Dr, Nix, & Hayden, 2020). Having skilled, trained mentors improves preservice teachers' skills and competencies (Cleaver et al, 2020;Hennissen, Crasborn, Brouwer, Korthagen, & Bergen, 2011;Simsar & Dogan, 2020).…”

The impact of Erasmus+ on self-efficacy of English language teachers

“…Teachers' sense of self-efficacy has been the subject of numerous studies over the years. For instance, student teachers' self-efficacy beliefs are greatly influenced by teacher education programs (Gomez-Johnson, Schaffer, Nix, & Hayden, 2020;Nikoçeviq-Kurti, 2022;Pitkäniemi & Martikainen, 2021). Mahasneh and Alwan (2018) investigated the effects of project-based learning on student teachers` performance and self-efficacy in another study.…”