Successful mentoring relationships are essential for novice teachers entering the teaching profession. The success of the mentoring process depends in large part on the diagnostic abilities of the... Show moreSuccessful mentoring relationships are essential for novice teachers entering the teaching profession. The success of the mentoring process depends in large part on the diagnostic abilities of the mentor, but there is little research on how mentor teachers view their mentees. In this small-scale study, we explored how 11 mentor teachers describe similarities and differences between their mentee teachers. We found that mentor teachers' descriptions predominantly relate to differences in personal engagement with pupils, identifying as a teacher, perfectionism and self-confidence. Mentors tended to describe these differences in terms of traits and dispositions. We provide suggestions for addressing this issue in mentor preparation and for using findings in mentor training, and we provide a conceptual framework for future studies of mentor teachers' views of their mentees. Show less
Current mentoring models for teacher preparation and induction emphasize the need to engage novice teachers' learning through collaborative professional learning communities. Mentors in such... Show moreCurrent mentoring models for teacher preparation and induction emphasize the need to engage novice teachers' learning through collaborative professional learning communities. Mentors in such communities are expected to engage in joint knowledge construction with novices, and to be co-thinkers' who enact a developmental view of mentoring, as well as co-learners' who are willing to engage in mutual learning with their novices. These two aspects are assumed to be associated in mentor thinking. The aim of this questionnaire study was, therefore, to explore the relationship between mentors' mentoring conceptions and their mentoring motives. Participants were 726 secondary education mentor teachers, associated with 13 institutes for teacher preparation in the Netherlands. Results showed that a motivation to mentor for personal learning was more strongly associated with a developmental conception of mentored learning to teach than with an instrumental mentoring conception. The same was found for a motivation to mentor for contributing to the profession, but less pronounced. These findings suggest potential strategies for the selection and preparation of mentor teachers for programs that intend to foster collaborative inquiry approaches for novice teacher support. Show less
Ginkel, G. van; Verloop, N.; Denessen, E.J.P.G. 2016
