Mentoring Teachers promotes Teacher Leadership

Author(s):

Nurbolat Bissengaliyev(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 04 C, Mentoring

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

09:00-10:30

Room:

B035 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Ene-Silvia Sarv

Contribution

Abstract

Various studies relating to mentoring programmes in schools have been examined by
different scholars in the last two decades. Many of their claims focused on providing inhouse professional development for teachers, which makes it possible to share pedagogical knowledge and teaching experience in such a way that teachers are supported in teaching and learning by other colleagues, through the creation of a collaborative environment. Moreover, it was noted in current literature that issues such as teachers’ skills in mentoring, teachers’ attitudes towards mentoring and teachers’ knowledge about mentoring are also important to the implementation of mentoring systems in schools, and these help teachers become potential mentors in their schools. Therefore, the principal goal of this study was to investigate the possibility of using a mentoring programme in Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS).
A mixed methods research approach was employed within a pragmatist philosophical stance. In the quantitative research, 82 teachers from the sample school participated in the study, by responding to the online questionnaire. In addition, seven teachers were invited to take part in in-depth interviews, in order to collect qualitative data. Findings from this mixed methods study showed that the majority of teachers had positive attitudes towards mentoring in schools. Also, teachers from the sample school claimed that they possess skills for mentoring, as well as knowledge about mentoring.
Furthermore, it was evident from this mixed methods study that support for a mentoring programme exists among teachers in the sample school. Thus, further study is recommended to develop current informal support among teachers, in order to implement formal mentoring relationships among teachers in the sample school and inother schools.

Research focus

Various educational reforms, changes in educational policies and new school programmes demand teacher training (Hill, 2004). Furthermore, the task for the NIS then, is how to create an in-service professional development programme that will ensure effective teaching. However, there are different types of teacher development programmes which are based in schools. For this school, it is necessary to implement such effective teacher training, in which experienced teachers as well as novice teachers can collaboratively share experiences in order to facilitate the implementation of educational initiatives. In fact, it is known that some of the new teachers at this school have difficulties with the implementation of the curriculum and assessment policies, in comparison to teachers who have been working at the school since it opened. In addition to this, newly-recruited teachers from other schools also meet some difficulties with new educational initiatives in NIS. This is why there is a need for school leaders to create a mentoring programme for the staff in order to overcome obstacles concerning school policy. Moreover, Torres-Guzman and Goodwin (1995) stated that mentoring is a close relationship, in which mentees get support, guidance and information from their mentors who can promote mentees’ professional development. In this case, the relationship between a mentor and a mentee is usually organised in such a way that a mentor can plan lessons together, observe mentee’s lessons and give feedback. Hence, mentoring is associated with preparation of new staff for membership in different organisation and agencies (Wilkin, 1997). Therefore, the research focus for this study is to investigate the possibility of using a mentoring system in Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS), in order to support novice teachers, as well as newly-recruited teachers who do not have an in-depth knowledge of the new educational initiatives in NIS.

Method

Mixed methods research design Mixed methods research design is a process of collecting information from qualitative as well as quantitative methods, for a single study of a research problem (Creswell, 2009). According to Johnson et al. (2007), this type of research is recognised as the third research approach, in which the conducting of qualitative and quantitative research is essential. The use of both methods in conjunction with each other can provide a better understanding of research questions and aims (Creswell, 2008). The main reason for choosing this research design is that it includes the advantages of both types of data collection. Creswell (2008) argued that quantitative data provides general information about a research problem, whereas qualitative data provides a deeper knowledge and investigates the research problem in depth. The aim of this design is that the concurrent triangulation design is used to overcome weaknesses of one method with the help of the strengths of another one. Data collection A questionnaire was used as an instrument for quantitative data collection. In order to collect data, two existing questionnaires were adapted from the literature and merged into one instrument. The first was written by Andrews and Quinn (2005) ‘The Effects of Mentoring on First-year Teachers’ Perceptions of Support Received. This was a 20 item questionnaire based on the level of support that novice teachers received. Also, the second piece of work was carried out by Sweetman (1999) ‘The assessment of a self-study course designed to develop mentoring commitment and competency among Australian Baptist church leaders’, who explored the understanding of what it is to be a mentor. Therefore, these two questionnaires contained structured rating scales. As for qualitative data collection, It should be pointed out that interview questions were adopted from Halcomb (2006) in the work ‘Mentors’ and Mentees’ perceptions of importance and effectiveness of mentor support’. The reason for choosing open-ended questions for an interview was to enable the researcher to listen to interviewees’ voices, which give in-depth information. More importantly, these interviews were conducted via the Skype application, in which the interviewees’ words were recorded, as well as transcribed. This was organised by the researcher in order to collect raw data, which will be analysed and interpreted in the findings chapter.

Expected Outcomes

The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of using a mentoring system, in which experienced teachers of NIS can support newly-recruited and novice teachers, in order to facilitate the implementation of new educational initiatives. Four main areas of mentoring were considered for this research, namely current support among teachers, teachers’ skills for mentoring, teachers’ attitudes towards mentoring and their knowledge about mentoring. The majority of teachers in both research methods stated that they supported their colleagues by sharing teaching experience, pedagogical knowledge, resources and supplies. Moreover, teacher-participants reported that they obtained skills for mentoring, in which the majority of teachers, particularly in the quantitative research, provided positive responses on the following skills: teamwork; interpersonal; and leadership. However, from the qualitative data analysis, it was found that interviewees suggested skills such as professional, problem-solving, critical thinking, communicative and teaching that potential mentors should possess. Teachers’ attitudes towards mentoring were more positive than negative. Teachers from the sample school pointed out that mentoring could provide opportunities for the professional development of mentors as well as mentees, and it could also ease the process of entering a new working environment. According to the findings, the current situation around informal support among teachers in the sample school was positive, and teachers were eager to support to each other. However, it was difficult to argue that teachers in the sample school were ready to become mentors, without any official and formal mentoring programmes and trainings. Therefore, from a researcher’s point of view, NIS can learn from this study that teachers from the sample school need to be formally trained in order to become effective mentors, who can share their extensive experience in NIS with newly-recruited and novice teachers.

References

ANDERSON, E.M. AND SHANNON, A.L., 1995. Toward a conceptualization of mentoring. In: KERRY, T AND MAYES, A.S., ed, Issues in Mentoring. London: Routledge, pp. 25-34. ANDREWS, B.D. and QUINN, R.J., 2005. The effects of mentoring on first-year teachers' perceptions of support received. The Clearing House, 78(3), pp. 110-117. BRIDGES, D., 1995. School-based teacher education. In: KERRY, T AND MAYES, A.S., ed, Issues in Mentoring. London: Routledge, pp. 64-80. COHEN, L., MANION, L. and MORRISON, K., 2011. Research methods in education. Routledge. CRESWELL, J.W., 2008. Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. 3 edn. Cambridge: Pearson. DAY, C., 1999. Professional Development and Reflective Practice: Purposes, Processes and Partnerships. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 7(2), pp. 221-233. ELLIOTT, B. AND CALDERHEAD, J., 1995. Mentoring for teacher development: possibilities and caveats. In: KERRY, T AND MAYES, A.S., ed, Issues in Mentoring. London: Routledge, pp. 35-58. FLETCHER, S., 2000. Mentoring in schools: A handbook of good practice. Kogan Page London. FULLAN, M., with Stiegelbauer, S.(1991). The new meaning of educational change. London: Cassell. HILL, H.C., 2004. Professional development standards and practices in elementary school mathematics. The Elementary School Journal, , pp. 215-231. HOBSON, A.J., 2002. Student Teachers' Perceptions of School-based Mentoring in Initial Teacher Training (ITT). Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 10(1), pp. 5-20. HOLCOMB, C., 2006. Mentor and mentee perceptions of the importance and effectiveness of mentor support. University of South Florida. INGERSOLL, R.M. and SMITH, T.M., 2004. Do teacher induction and mentoring matter? NASSP bulletin, 88(638), pp. 28-40. JOHNSON, R.B. and ONWUEGBUZIE, A.J., 2004. Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Educational researcher, 33(7), pp. 14-26. LONG, J.S., MCKENZIE-ROBBLEE, S., SCHAEFER, L., STEEVES, P., WNUK, S., PINNEGAR, E. and CLANDININ, D.J., 2012. Literature Review on Induction and Mentoring Related to Early Career Teacher Attrition and Retention. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 20(1), pp. 7-26. MCINTYRE, D.G., HAGGER, H. and WILKIN, M., 1994. Mentoring: Perspectives on school-based teacher education. Routledge. RUSSELL, L., 2007. Mentoring is not for you!: mentee voices on managing their mentoring experience. Improving Schools, 10(1), pp. 41-52. SINCLAIR, C., 2003. Mentoring Online about Mentoring: Possibilities and practice. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 11(1), pp. 79-94. ZACHARY, L.J., 2011. The mentor's guide: Facilitating effective learning relationships. Wileycom.

Author Information

Nurbolat Bissengaliyev (presenting / submitting)

Nazarbayev Intellectual School of Physics and Mathematics in Astana

Astana

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