3 things that you can do right now
Talk to your mentee about their moral purpose. Why are they a teacher? What is it that they value about their chosen profession? What type of teacher do they want to become? Having a ‘vision’ of the type of teacher they want to be will allow a mentee to become more aware of the areas that they want to focus on and improve.
Ask probing questions when giving feedback. Ensure your mentee is justifying the decisions they are making whilst considering the impact on learning. This will allow them to define their own principles more clearly and support reflective practice.
Allow your mentee to observe a variety of teaching styles across as many contexts as possible. Even better, if you are able to do this with them, even for 10 minutes. Including cross phase observations, working in different year groups etc.
In this section
Develop Professional Identities
In this section we focus on:
- supporting teachers in the development of their professional identity
- stimulating reflection and challenging teachers to take control of their own learning process, laying the foundation for 'lifelong learning' as a teacher
In previous sections we have spoken about the individual characteristics of classrooms up and down the country. It is vital that our schools reflect the multicultural nature of our society. With this in mind, it is also vital that we, as mentors, support our mentees to embrace the individual characteristics that make them who they are. This will not be a priority for either yourself or your mentee at the very start of their training if you are working within ITT. When September arrives, most trainees will be making sense of the endless acronyms associated with teaching, rather than considering their own pedagogical principles attached to their practice. However, as your mentee makes progress throughout the year and their further career, they will begin to understand their own progress and areas for growth. At this point and beyond, it is important to nurture their individual attitude towards teaching. The challenge for mentors comes when this is not aligned with their own vision for teaching. This can also be particularly challenging when working with other colleagues in your team or department. This can be difficult when giving feedback as you might have a differing opinion on how a lesson could or should have been taught.
The key is to remain professional and remember to think about the tools and frameworks given to you by your training provider, Appropriate Body or school. It is important that both you and your mentee take an analytical approach to why a particular teaching and learning activity has had an impact … or not. The key driver is outcomes for pupils. Even if a lesson was taught in a different way to how you might have chosen to do it, did the pupils still succeed? If so, then recognising this and embracing the opportunity to support your mentee in finding their own professional identity will make you a very aware and supportive mentor. For trainees, the jump from trainee to Early Career Teacher is a large one and you can support this transition by allowing your mentee to start laying foundations for the teacher they are going to be by recognising that they may choose to approach teaching in a different way and being comfortable with this. Irrelevant of the stage that your mentee is at in their career, allowing them to discover their own teaching style, complimented by your experience and knowledge as a mentor, facilitates the mentee to take control of their own learning process and encourages them to become a reflective practitioner who is aware of their own strengths and areas for development as a teacher.
The Push-Pull continuum in coaching
This common framework (one version, my Myles Downey) is called the Coaching Spectrum, helps managers, educators and coaches think about the best way to develop abilities in someone else.
Read this short article (with graphic) here.
The Merid Model
The quality of mentoring in teacher education is an essential component of a powerful learning environment for teachers. There is no single approach to mentoring that will work in the same way for every teacher in each context. Nevertheless, most mentor teachers hardly vary their supervisory behaviour in response to varying mentoring situations. This interesting summary challenges our thinking on adaptive mentoring.
Access the research summary and graphic here.
To develop a strong sense of professionalism, a teacher must focus on the critical elements of attitude, behaviour and communication.
Whilst not as current as other pieces or research, this text from 2001 is just as relevant now as it was when first written. The article argues that a professional 'doesn't see his or her profession as a job, but rather sees it as a calling that is all about caring for children'.
Deliberate Practice for Teacher Educators: A Handbook
Page 11 of this handbook from Ambition Institute outlines how you and your school, can create a culture of good practice. Encouraging ‘drop ins’ and eradicating the suspicion that can exist when teachers engage in being observed.
How schools can engage with research and evidence
Dr Deborah Netolicky considers how schools and teachers can engage with research. Broken down into five easy steps, this is an accessible blog that gives a great starting point for any Teacher Educator who is keen to develop their own knowledge.
The effects of high-quality professional development on teachers and students
This report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) undertakes a detailed review of the evidence on the impact of teacher professional development. Ambition Institute have worked alongside the EPI and the report argues that high quality CPD has a significant impact on the learning outcomes of children and adults working with the Teacher Educator.
Coaching and Mentoring conversations about context
If coaches and mentors rarely, if ever, offer advice, what do they do? They offer context. Context is “relevant information, which the learner does not hold, but which may have a significant effect upon the quality of the decisions they take”. Professor David Clutterbuck explores this further.
Teacher professional identity: agentic actions of a novice teacher in a challenging school context
This abstract explores the body of knowledge by exploring agency as part of the development of female teachers’ professional identity over 6 years.
‘Being a teacher and a teacher educator – developing a new identity?’ Article in Professional Development in Education, Volume 40, Issue 3, 2014, Pages 436-449
Elizabeth White
This article considers the ever-growing importance of mentors within schools and how this role impacts on the professional identity of teachers. White focusses on the CPD that exists for existing teachers to develop into effective Teacher Educators.
Effective Professional Development
Supporting high quality teaching is pivotal in improving children’s outcomes. Indeed, research tells us that high quality teaching can narrow the disadvantage gap. It is therefore hugely encouraging to see a host of new initiatives and reforms that recognise the importance of teacher quality such as the Early Career Framework and the new National Professional Qualifications. The Education Endowment Foundation provides tried and tested approaches via this analysis.
Non-Directive Coaching: Attitudes, Approaches and Applications
Bob Thomson (Critical Publishing, 2013)
Well respected Bob Thomson writes how important it is for a coach/mentor to be clear about whether they want to be directive or non-directive in their approach. Each chapter offers you the chance to answer reflective questions that allow you to determine which type of practitioner you are or want to become.
Teacher educators pathways to becoming research active
This collection of case studies outlines the different pathways that teachers have followed to becoming Teacher Educators. Some have envisaged carrying out this role their entire lives and others have fallen into it without it ever being part of their plan. This is a realistic viewpoint and represents the experience of a lot of Teacher Educators. The experiences of the Teacher Educators within this accessible booklet will resonate with a range of practitioners and will support you in building your own skills.
How to be a Great Mentor
Kenneth Ortiz shares his thoughts and wisdom on what is needed to develop successful mentor relationships to promote the next level of leaders around us.
Evidence Informed Practice
What if… we really wanted evidence-informed practice in the classroom?
There’s been a big push to get classroom practice shaped by evidence of ‘what works’. This has been largely inspired by advances in healthcare, where the use of research trials and national guidelines to improve patient care and outcomes is more established. Join the debate about the implications for practice, teacher professionalism and education research itself.
Develop Professional Identities - Further Development
