The third paper introduces Norwegian practices of mentoring new teachers. The Norwegian model is, in its plurality, based on local custom models developed by teacher educators, researchers, local authorities and leaders in kindergarten, pre-school, primary and secondary school, and secondary education. In Norway, a national strategy for mentoring new teachers is based on experiences from different pilot projects and the work of “Network on mentoring new teachers”. Participants in the Norwegian network are teacher educators, mentor educators and researches. Together with local authorities and school leaders, the teacher educators have developed different local based models for mentoring new teachers. In this way the induction programs are based on collaboration between local authorities, employers, teacher unions and teacher education institutions (Bjerkholt, 2013). The national strategy of induction new teachers in kindergarten, preschool, school and secondary education is based on an agreement for mentoring newly qualified teachers (KD & KS, 2009) and implemented in the new agreement “Development of quality in kindergarten and schools” (KS & KD, 2014). The municipalities have the responsibility of offering new teachers a system for mentoring, and the universities are responsible for informing their graduates and educating mentors. Educated mentors are one of the keys to the success of the Norwegian model. Mentoring education, by design, focuses on three kinds of support: professional, personal and social. Mentoring is a complex practice and in this presentation mentors, teacher educators and researchers will present different mentoring practices from different approaches to mentoring (Wang & Odell, 2004, 2007). The research question is: Why do the Norwegian strategy focus on educating the mentors? The presentation will particularly focus on how to facilitate critical thinking. The presentation is based on a comparative study of mentoring sessions (Bjerkholt & Ødegård, 2014), and preliminary findings in the project “Professionalization through mentoring”.

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