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Mentorskapets betydelse för att kompetensutveckla individen, organisationen, nu och förr. Kvalitativ studie med intervjuer.

Student achievement is rooted in a teacher’s ability to identify and assess student understanding of material. This is particularly challenging in classroom settings, which are dynamic and full of distractions, especially in science classrooms where discussion and inquiry are paramount. In mathematics education, the concept of professional noticing of children’s thinking refers to a teacher attending to, interpreting, and responding to student content understanding throughout a class period (Jacobs, Lamb, & Philipp, 2010). This skill is equally important when teaching other content, such as science, and is a key component of responsive and reflective practice used by excellent educators as outlined by reform standards for science (National Research Council [NRC], 1996, 2012; NGSS Lead States, 2013). Before a teacher can adapt to student needs, they must first identify critical moments of student sense-making and interpret the student’s ideas. Only then can they respond effectively. This set of teaching skills can be learned, and then later improved upon with practice and reflection. Recent research suggests that preservice science teachers can learn the fundamentals of noticing skills during specialized courses (Barnhart & van Es, 2015) and are able to carry forward this learning into their teaching experiences as full-time teachers (Amador, Carter, Hudson, & Galindo, 2017). However, little is known about the role of different aspects of preservice teacher education program experiences in laying the foundation for life-long development of noticing skills. This study used a multiple case study design to explore the experiences of six preservice science teachers, as related to professional teacher noticing of student thinking about science, during the semester before their full-time student teaching experience. Based on a situated learning framework (Lave & Wenger, 1991), this study centered on the university- and field-based experiences associated with a middle and secondary teacher education program at a large, Mid-Atlantic, urban university. Participants were enrolled in a teacher residency program. Observations, semistructured interviews, and artifact analysis were used to identify opportunities for and experiences with learning professional teacher noticing of student thinking about science content throughout the first semester of this residency program. Analysis of data included the use of a combination of a priori codes about the degree of teacher noticing of student thinking about science (Barnhart & van Es, 2015) and emergent codes of contextual events relating to opportunities for preservice science teachers to notice student thinking during field experiences. Case studies were developed, and a cross-case analysis performed to identify themes and trends in the learning experiences and development of the participants around noticing practices. Broadly, I found that the most access residents have to noticing is in their field experiences, and that their opportunities to learn to notice may be primarily mediated by their mentors’ abilities to “unpack” their own practice, communicate effectively with the resident, and help residents hone in on the content goals of lessons. This study provides a unique examination of preservice science teacher learning opportunities at the interface of education coursework and field experiences. Assertions developed from this multiple case study analysis provide insight into which experiences have the most impact on the development of preservice teachers’ attention to student thinking. / Math & Science Education

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to study successful mentoring programs/approaches to determine factors that positively affect the training, sustaining, and retaining of novice teachers in elementary schools. The primary question was, how do novice teachers, mentors, and principals in elementary schools describe their mentoring programs? The study was also guided by one sub question: What effect has the COVID-19 pandemic had on the mentoring program? Three principals, five mentor teachers, and three novice teachers completed the survey and from the survey respondents, three principals, four mentor teachers, and three novice teachers participated in a 1:1 virtual or phone interview. A case study method was conducted to target effective strategies currently used by mentors and principals to support new teachers with 1 to 3 years' experience. Ten school-based educators participated in the research. Open-ended questions were posed during a structured 1:1 interview with principals, mentors, and novice teachers. Findings suggest that novice teachers, mentor teachers, and principals believe three factors significantly impact a mentoring program: support, accessibility, and collaboration. The aim in conducting this research was to add to the literature on research-based practices and the system-wide approach of mentoring novice teachers that empowers teacher effectiveness, improves instructional practices, and increases teacher retention. By understanding the fidelity, consistency, and the level of support, accessibility, and collaboration in which novice teachers were afforded authentic opportunities to observe, learn with and from peers, mentors, and the principal in a mentoring program can be postulated for consideration. Study findings showed that novice teachers, mentors and principals believe mentoring programs afford opportunities for professional development, regularly scheduled meetings, and check in times with novice teachers. Thus, the study showed that mentors value having more time to meet with novice teachers to "hammer out" things they get bogged down with and have reflective conversations. The findings also showed that novice teachers rely on support from mentors with parent conferences, classroom management, learning curriculum content, preparing for back to school night, progress reports, getting to know the staff, and navigating the school culture. In addition, the findings showed that overall, principals do not work directly with novice teacher. However, they maintain an open door policy; follow the school district's guidelines for establishing mentoring program within the school; collaborate with lead mentors to find the best fit to pair mentors with novice teachers and keep a pulse on the supports and needs of the program; participate in new teacher orientation; and check in with novice teachers. / Doctor of Education / GENERAL AUDIENCE ABSTRACT This study investigated the mentoring and induction programs that support novice teachers in elementary schools. The researcher conducted a study about how to support novice teachers through mentoring and induction in elementary schools to determine the factors that affect the training, sustaining, and retaining of novice teachers. The primary question was, how do novice teachers, mentors, and principals in elementary schools describe their mentoring programs? The study was also guided by one sub question: What effect has the COVID-19 pandemic had on the mentoring program? A survey was sent to five elementary school principals, five mentor teachers, and three novice teachers. Three elementary school principals completed the demographic survey and completed the 1:1 Zoom (audio recorded only) interview. Four mentor teachers and two novice teachers completed the survey and participated in a phone interview. In addition, one novice teacher completed the survey and participated in a 1:1 Zoom (audio recorded only) interview. A data analysis process was used to analyze the 10 participants' interview responses regarding how novice teachers were supported in a mentoring and induction program in elementary schools. Findings suggest that principals, mentors, and novice teachers alike considered support, accessibility, and collaboration critical characteristics in supporting novice teachers.

The United States continues to face a national shortage of teachers with large numbers of vacancies in districts creating crisis situations for many schools. Novice teachers often quit within five years, with highest attrition in schools serving minority and economically challenged students. Among the reasons teachers cite leaving the profession is lack of preparation. The most impactful teacher preparation experience is field placement with a mentor teacher during supervised student teaching. While research highlights its benefits, little is known about how mentor teachers are matched with pre-service teachers. This study sought to investigate the decision-making process of school leaders in this regard. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with 20 PreK-12 public school principals to investigate the following research questions: 1) What criteria do principals use to make decisions involving the matching of mentor and pre-service teachers within PreK-12 schools? 2) What are principals’ perceptions of matching mentor teachers with pre-service teachers? Regarding the first question, findings indicate that principals played a more pivotal role in the matching process than university partners, principals used similar criteria to select mentors as they use when hiring new teachers, and principals had little insight into pre-service teachers' backgrounds, experiences, and goals to inform the matching process. As for the second question, findings indicate that principals often struggle to find mentors, relationships forged between mentor and pre-service teachers were the primary contributor to positive outcomes from the matching process, and pre-service teachers were often blamed for negative outcomes from the matching process. Additionally, principals often regarded the matching process as a potential pipeline for recruiting and hiring prospective teachers and as a vehicle to meet the urgent need for effective teacher preparation, given teacher shortages. Principals noted the need to increase university involvement to improve the matching process. A framework for matching was created using the research in this study to inform future matching decisions. / Educational Leadership

Faculty mentorship is considered an important component of graduate education. Faculty supervisors of graduate student assistants are in a unique position to enhance the personal and career development of their supervisees. Yet, little is known about the relationship between supervision and mentorship in graduate education. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mentoring behavior and supervisory approach as reported by faculty supervisors of graduate student assistants at Virginia Tech. Data were collected using the Mentor Behaviors Questionnaire and Supervisory Approach Inventory and analyzed using analysis of variance. The findings suggested that faculty provided career mentoring behaviors as a result of academic culture and the perceived role of faculty rather than the influence of gender, prior mentoring experience, or length of relationship. However, faculty with no prior mentoring experience, might be unaware of the value of psychosocial mentoring in promoting personal development of their assistants, especially in male-male relationships. A positive relationship between synergistic supervision and mentoring was established which suggested that productive supervisory practices and mentoring behavior were similar. Faculty who had more contact with students reported higher levels of career mentoring. Reward and recognition were suggested as incentives for increasing student contact which might foster career mentoring. Surprisingly, graduate assistant supervisors reported higher rates of mentoring behaviors than teaching or research assistant supervisors, thus challenging the commonly held perception that research assistants were more likely to receive mentoring support from faculty than other types of assistants. The information generated by this study is useful in identifying faculty behaviors associated with mentorship and establishing the link between assistantship supervision and mentorship opportunity. Student affairs and graduate education professionals may find that the implementation of faculty mentor training programs is a useful tool in promoting the psychosocial and career development of students. / Master of Arts

The challenge to create learning environments that could promote learning is an aspect which currently enjoys much attention in the higher education environment. According to the outcomes based approach, learners are required to be equipped with relevant and applicable skills when entering the workforce on completion of their studies. With this as background, this study investigated the applicability of experiential learning as an approach that could enable learners to make optimal use of changing learning environments. Experiential learning mainly takes place through learners’ exposure to concrete experiences which are then critically reflected upon. The concept of action learning is often used as synonym for experiential learning, as the principles underlying these concepts and the philosophical assumptions are the same. Service learning is an application field of experiential learning that differs from the traditional learning approach. Learners learn from their exposure to learning experiences, whereas service rendering takes place simultaneously. In this study attention will be paid to the importance of reflection in the learning process. On completion of the learning experience learners critically investigate their own values, preconceptions, insights they have gained in the process and actions. The reflective learning process gives learners the opportunity to monitor their own learning objectives, to enhance insight and understanding and observe the interaction between theory and practice. In addition to this the process allows them to optimise human potential by applying what they have learned. According to the process followed in this study, learners have developed and implemented certain psycho-social interventions in collaboration with a specific community. At the start of the process learners were requested to keep their dairies up to date and use these to reflect on any aspect of their learning experience. With the consent of the learners a quantitative analysis was done of the content of their dairies and certain themes have manifested. The main themes that have been identified refer to the experiences during the development and implementation of the intervention and these relate mainly to the learning facilitator. Initially learners were quite dependent on familiar structures but once they became more at ease with the process, they were able to observe and manage the process with greater freedom. One aspect that is prominent in this study is the significance of group processes - not only for the individual learner, but also as part of the greater environment. Learners were specifically challenged to manage the unpredictability of the various processes – something which has required greater adaptability and leniency of learners. Learners’ reflections on the achievement of learning outcomes centre on opportunities to practically apply their theoretical knowledge. In many learners the interaction between theory and practice has resulted in the expansion of their cognitive content. Many references were also made to the improvement of life skills which relate specifically to the group processes and personal enrichment. A reflective attitude in a learning environment facilitates opportunities for learners to build on their current knowledge and develop a greater emotive conscience of the various processes and people involved in the learning environment. In addition to this individual life skills can also become more prominent. Reflection on learning experiences is a critical component by which learners could make sense of their experiences and apply their knowledge, emphasise the greater environment and support the interaction between people and the self as part of the learning process. / Dissertation (MA (Research Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Psychology / unrestricted

As in the case of many other local and overseas teacher-training institutions the Postgraduate Certificate of Education programme (PGCE) at the University of Pretoria is a model rich in experience. In this model 60% of the time is devoted to a school-based programme and 40% to the university-based programme. The school-based programme is presented in association with schools. The student teacher is placed in a school for a period of seven weeks and assigned to a teacher who acts as the mentor teacher. The mentor teacher serves as a the link between teaching theory and subject content and also plays a major role in the contextualisation of the classroom learning experiences. The university prescribes various tasks: mentor teacher have to stimulate the inquiry skills and reflective practices of student teachers, manage meta-communication across situation and role, manage learning tasks and create a safe and challenging learning environment to the students. The mentor teacher should therefore not only be a subject specialist in his or her field of specialisation but should also create the opportunity for student teachers to maximise their potential. In this study the focus is on the experience of the teacher taking up the role of a mentor teacher. To fulfil the role of mentor teacher implies that an exchange of identity needs to take place from teacher identity to mentor teacher identity. This prompted the following research question: What is the identity image of a mentor teacher? With subsidiary questions as <ul> <li>What are the identifying characteristics of a mentor? </li> <li>What are the identifiable dynamic processes or stressful situations that have an impact on the identity formation of a mentor?</li></ul> The research could be identified as qualitative in the interpretative paradigm. Data were collected by means of open-ended questionnaires and in-depth interviews with selected mentor teachers and student teachers. The student teachers assigned to the selected mentors were automatically included in the study. The study was repeated for over a period of three terms, each term with two different teachers and student teachers. To analyse the data, Gee’s (2000-2001) four perspectives of identity, namely nature-identity, institution-identity, discourse-identity and affinity-identity, were used as analytical framework. The results disclosed many indicators supportive of mentor-identity but no fixed mentor-identity emerged. However, the characteristics, functions and responsibilities of a successful mentor in this case study were identified. These characteristics, functions and responsibilities defining the identity of a mentor teacher, could support the school in selecting teachers to take up the role of mentor teachers. In an extended school-based teaching practice the quality of the experience, in most cases, depends on the mentor teachers' beliefs and attitude towards the task. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

The main aim of the theoretical part is to introduce difficulties of the teaching profession, such as the problems that are encountered today, when they are available for work and the challenges that they are not prepared for. With the aid of literature, I define the term 'beginning teacher' and I introduce the most common types of problems that arise. Furthermore, I focus on the possible support system for beginning teachers. The empiric part presents the assessment of the results from completed questionnaires and the dialogues with the beginning teachers of primary education. In my prepared and structured questionnaire and dialogue, I focus on the problems, which they might have struggled with or are still struggling with, such as if they feel that university was not able to prepare them adequately for their future job. In addition to this, I aim one's attention to the support system, which was provided to them, if they had an opportunity of a mentor. I am interested in parent's reaction when they found out that the new class teacher of their children is a fresh university graduate. Lastly, if they had a big problem to gain children's authority. KEYWORDS a beginning teacher, primary education, problems of beginning teachers, a mentor, support system for beginning teachers, the teaching...

Work explores the benefits of mentoring for the professional development of teachers and students of teaching. The aim is to contribute to discussions of mentoring in the Czech Republic. The theme of mentoring in our conditions is relatively new, so the work seeks to contribute to the theoretical grasp of the subject too. Research is conducted in qualitative approach using case study design. Case there is interaction between the mentor and mentee, where are defined other criteria for the selection of teachers in the role of mentor to the research sample. Used data collection methods are: questioning by interview via instruction manual, expert interviews and a questionnaire with open questions. Other methods are the video analysis, documents and focus groups. Obtained data were analyzed according to several theoretical frameworks according selected strategy seeking hits/congruence and these initial theoretical concepts were enriched with data from case analysis and compared with each other. The results show that the benefits are perceived more on mentee side and benefits are accentuated and focused on the development in the profession, mentee gain as hints, tips and advice based on experience and the development of their independent thinking within the teaching profession. The benefits for the...