Session Information
Contribution
This paper analyzes experienced teachers' professional development processes and the contributions - to their professional development- of participating in a research group linked to Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil, which sponsors an On-Line Mentorship Program (OMP) directed to novice teachers (www.portaldosprofessores.ufscar.br). This research - of a constructive-collaborative nature - seeks to answer the questions: What is the contribuition of being a mentor in an online mentorship program and participate in a research group to the professional development of experienced teachers? What are the perceived challenges and dilemmas encountered in this process? To this end, the researchers sought to understand how the experienced teachers' knowledge base-as described by Shulman (1988, 1996)-may be developed and how experienced teachers change when acting as mentors to novice teachers and researchers of their own practice in an OMP. By means of an intervention-research - according to the constructive-collaborative model of teacher education described by Cole & Knowles (1993) - an OMP was designed by the researchers and ten mentors. The mentors are in charge of on-line mentorship activities, each one assisting two novice teachers and participating in weekly meetings with the researchers. As indicated by Wang & Odell (2002) it was necessary to develop the mentors' interpersonal and reflective skills as well to enhance their outlook and skills in teaching and learning to teach new teachers. The data were collected during presencial weekly meetings between mentors e researchers (registered in video) as well by means: of written narratives (i.e., emails and reflective journals) provided by the mentors and novice teachers; the mentors' oral narratives(Freeman, 2000; Clandinin & Conelly, 1994); the researchers' observations of these meetings; and interviews. The results were analyzed in light of individual and collective processes of building professional learning communities (Grossman, Wineburg & Woolworth, 2000). Results show that the work carried out in the OMP implies the participants' personal investment dependent on their motivation and involvement and the establishment of mutual trust, which takes time and does not happen evenly among participants. The researchers' efforts to elicit the participants' knowledge, which has a distributed character and to stress the importance of sharing this knowledge are of fundamental importance as it is the starting point to successful group work. The constant exchange between the researchers and mentors around shared objectives is an effective antidote to this and other difficulties faced by the group. Results also show that analyzing data collectively may contribute to broader and deeper understanding among participants and that keeping a communication channel permanently open between the researchers and mentors may be very valuable. CLANDININ, D.J.; CONELLY, F. M. Personal Experience Methods. In: DENZIN, N. K; LINCOLN, Y.S. (eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, 1994, p. 413-425. COLE, A. L. ; KNOWLES, J.G. E Teacher Development Partnership Research: a focus on methods and issues. American Educational Reasearch Journal, 30,3, 473:495,1993.FREEMAN, D. "To take them at their word": language data in the study of teachers' knowledge. In: BRIZUELA, B. M et al. (eds.). Acts of Inquire in Qualitative Research. Harvard Educational Review. Reprint Series. n.34, 2000.GROSSMAN, P.,; WINEBBURG, S.; WOOLWORTH, S. Toward a Theory of Teacher Community, Teachers College Record, v.103, n.6. p.942-1012. SHULMAN, L. S. Knowledge and teaching: foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, n.57, v.1, 1987. p. 1-22. SHULMAN, L. S. Those who understand: knowledge grow in teaching. Educational Researcher, v.15, n.2, 1986. p. 4-14. WANG, J. E.; ODELL, S. J. Mentored Learning to Teach According Standards-Based Reform: a critical review. Review of Educational Research. n. 72, v.3, 2002. p. 481-546.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.