Mentoring

Researching practice-based teacher education: Trends, challenges and recommendations for future research

“…The trends in research focus found in the individual reviews are outlined in Table 2. Floden & Meniketti (2005) Effects of coursework on teacher effectiveness and pupil learning Zeichner & Conklin (2008) Effects of teacher education programme structure on student learning Berry, Depaepe, & Van Driel (2016) Relationship between teacher candidates' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and instructional behaviour Organisation and quality of fieldwork related to teacher candidates' PCK development Cochran-Smith et al (2016) Pedagogies of teacher education coursework and their effect on teacher candidates' learning, mainly related to their beliefs and understandings Influence of interactions between triad participants on teacher candidates' opportunities to learn to teach Influence of alternative as opposed to traditional structures on student teaching Influence of teacher candidates' characteristics, school-related factors, and fieldwork features on learning outcomes Orland- Barak (2016) Outcomes of mentoring but few studies on the effect of mentoring on teaching behaviour and pupil learning…”

“…Orland- Barak (2016) found studies on the outcomes of mentees' learning, emphasising processes and conditions that enhance mentees' learning. She argued that this aspect of mentoring has been less investigated than other aspects such as the mentor role and mentor learning.…”

“…The trends in research designs found in the individual reviews are outlined in Table 3. 2005Qualitative case studies Classroom observations, interviews, analysis of lesson plans Self-studies Lack of comparative studies and longitudinal studies Floden & Meniketti (2005) Interpretive studies, as well as experiments and pretestposttest studies Zeichner & Conklin (2008) Self-report data such as programme documents and reports from teacher educators Berry, Depaepe, & Van Driel (2016) Small-scale studies measuring pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in a dynamic way Large-scale, experimental, longitudinal, and/or comparative studies measuring PCK in a static way Cochran-Smith et al 2016Small qualitative (self-) studies Lack of longitudinal studies and studies on the impacts of teacher education on teaching practice Orland- Barak (2016) Small-scale case studies Clift and Brady (2005) found mainly qualitative case studies using data such as classroom observations, interviews, and course material (i.e., lesson plans). They also identified an increasing number of self-studies and warned against the possibility of self-fulfilling findings.…”

“…They emphasised that researchers have pointed to the dominance of such research designs, and they concluded that nearly all previous reviews have recommended that in addition to these, teacher preparation also needs more larger-scale research studies, studies that use data from regional and national data bases, genuinely longitudinal studies, studies that use wellestablished research instruments, and multisite studies that are not limited to the features and idiosyncrasies of particular programs. (Cochran-Smith et al, 2016, p. 513) Similarly, Orland- Barak (2016) found that most studies on mentoring are smallscale case studies focusing on local or national contexts. She concluded that the field is conceptually and methodologically fragmented and needs to work to create a "more integrative, conceptually grounded research agenda across contexts and settings" (Orland- Barak, 2016, p. 133).…”

“…The second trend, the use of vague concepts within this body of research means that researchers are not clearly stating the definitions and concepts they used or the ways they operationalised the key concepts in their studies (Clift & Brady, 2005;Floden & Meniketti, 2005;Orland-Barak, 2016;Zeichner & Conklin, 2008). If these operationalisations and definitions are not clear, then neither are the research findings, as the reader does not know if the research measures what it claims to be measuring.…”