Novice teachers need mentoring support from experienced teachers as they prepare to become teachers. Such mentoring support needs to be responsive and adaptive to novice teachers’ learning. Mentor... Show moreNovice teachers need mentoring support from experienced teachers as they prepare to become teachers. Such mentoring support needs to be responsive and adaptive to novice teachers’ learning. Mentor teachers therefore require knowledge of novice teacher learning and of mentoring activities to support this learning. These are critical but underdeveloped components in the knowledge base of mentoring. This thesis draws on mentor teachers’ practical knowledge to inform the knowledge base of mentoring, and focuses on the question: What is the content of mentor teachers’ practical knowledge of adaptive response to their mentee teachers’ learning? Through questionnaires and interviews, the study elicited four components of mentor teachers’ practical knowledge of adaptive mentoring: 1) their mentoring conceptions, 2) their knowledge of mentoring activities, 3) their knowledge of novice teacher learning, and 4) their heuristics for responding to specific mentoring situations. Findings show that adaptive mentors focus on novice teacher construction of practical knowledge of teaching, and that confronting novices with problems is a central activity of adaptive mentoring. The study provides representations of shared mentor teacher knowledge of adaptive mentoring and a component model of mentor practical knowledge of adaptive mentoring, useful for developers of mentor training. Show less
