Learning to Teach or Learning to Manage Mentors? Experiences of school-based teacher training

Abstract

In the late 1990s teachers acting as mentors play a key role in initial teacher training (ITT). This article reports the ® ndings of a study which examined student teachers' perceptions of`good' practice in mentoring. Given that certain parallels have been drawn between the nineteenth-centur y pupil-teacher scheme and school-based ITT, the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) who see apprenticeship as central to learning was used as a framework for analysing the data. The study highlighted the signi® cance of the affective in student teachers' school-based learning. But it also highlighted the signi® cance of the affective in mentors' practice: e.g. mentors' feelings of vulnerability. The way in which students responded to mentors in this respectÐ how far they were able to`manage' their mentorsÐ ultimately contributed to the success of students' placements. The article concludes that the possession of mentoring skills alone will not guarantee that students receive appropriate support.

Are You Ready to be a Mentor? Preparing Teachers for Mentoring Pre-service Teachers

“…Assessment of the mentee by the mentor is not a component of mentoring. It can be argued though, that a strong reciprocal relationship between the mentor and mentee, whereby continual dialogue between the participants that discusses feedback about progress can avoid potential issues (Jones, 2000;Maynard, 2000). Consequently, in a mentoring circumstance, a shared understanding of assessment practices and tools needs to be formulated by the mentor and mentee in order to avoid potential role conflict.…”

The effect of the courses of school experience and teaching practice on primary school mathematics teachers

“…These are prospective teacher, responsible lecturer at the faculty of education and guidance teacher at the practicing school. As stressed in many researchers, the lecturer at the faculty of education has to be in a very close contact with the guidance teacher at the practicing school (Maynard, 2000;Zanting et al, 2001;Gök and Sılay, 2004).…”

Project Evidence: Responding to the Changing Professional Learning Needs of Mentors in Initial Teacher Education

“…A number of commentators point to the same dichotomy in ITE (Bryan & Carpenter, 2008;Colley, 2002;Maynard, 2000;Yayli, 2008), which Bradbury and Koballa Jr (2008) argue places mentors and pre-service teachers "in a confusing and untenable position" (p. 2136). It has been long established that, through their work in practice, mentors and preservice teachers negotiate and construct the role of the mentor (see, for example, Monaghan & Lunt, 1992).…”