Collaborative Mentoring in Initial Teacher Education: the role of formative assessment

Author(s):

Lorele Mackie(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

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

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 01 A, Mentoring

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-10

13:15-14:45

Room:

B-202

Chair:

Maureen Killeavy

Contribution

Aim of study:

to explore collaborative mentoring and the role of formative assessment within Initial Teacher Education (ITE) with the aim of offering a contribution to further understanding the intricacies of the mentoring process.

The importance of the mentoring process within the realms of beginner teachers is a recurring theme within the literature on teacher education. The current prevailing discourse of a ‘knowledge society’ and its emphasis on lifelong learning suggests that the processes of learning and teaching are significant, and necessitates changes to the way teaching is conceptualised: wider and more complex knowledge, skill and competences bases are required (Grabinger, Dunlap and Duffield, 1997). Such a discourse means that the process of learning is a central component and ‘teaching is the core profession, the key change agent of change’(Hargreaves, 2003:125). This has implications for the nature and quality of the future generation of teachers in terms of the attributes necessary to develop appropriate capacities in learners and the mentoring practices used to foster such attributes. This is a problematic task (Davies and Dunnill, 2008) that requires appropriate, considered responses. Within the context of initial teacher education and salient discourses of professionalism, this paper considers the role of formative assessment principles and practices within a collaborative mentoring process as one response to the need for the development of these attributes. Current Scottish education policy is used to frame and exemplify points made with respect to development of mentoring processes and their relationship to formative assessment. However, applicability of this analysis goes wider than Scotland, recognizing the tendency in education for policy to ‘travel’ (Ozga and Jones, 2006).

Collaborative mentoring practices are underpinned by a constructivist epistemological basis. This is evident in educational research literature both on mentoring beginner teachers and that of formative assessment (for example, Hawkey, 1998; Graham, 1999; Mullen, 2000; Stanulis and Russell, 2000; Ritchie, Rigano and Lowry, 2000; Wang, 2002; Harrison et al., 2005; Rosenblatt, 1979 as cited in Hargreaves 2007). As an epistemology constructivism has been defined in a variety of ways (Larochelle, Bedwarz and Garrison, 1998). In educational contexts the following two conceptions are common and most relevant: cognitive constructivism, where the focus is on individual construction of knowledge, and social constructivism in which knowledge is constructed through interaction with others (Phillips, 2000). These two conceptions may be combined so that learners actively construct knowledge and understanding both individually and through interactions with others in order to make meaning from experiences where depth of comprehension is key.

Method

This is a theoretical paper informed by a range of relevant literature about the mentoring process and formative assessment. Themes pertinent to the research aim: Initial Teacher Education in the 21st century; mentoring and teacher professionalism; mentoring, learning and assessment; the mentoring process and formative assessment, are identified and examined underpinned by a constructivist epistemology.

Expected Outcomes

The mentoring process and its associated assessment practices are significant factors in learning to teach given the prevailing discourse of a knowledge society and lifelong learning agenda which necessitates changes to the way teaching is conceptualised: wider and more complex knowledge, skill and competences bases are required. Within the context of democratic professionalism, collaboration is recognised as a key concept in mentoring that is necessary to develop the aforementioned knowledge, skill and competence bases. Therefore, the use of appropriate assessment practices within the mentoring process is integral to fostering such collaboration. Formative assessment principles and practices seem apposite as they connect learning and assessment processes through collaborative, dialogic techniques. However, an investigation of the role of such principles and practices in the mentoring of beginner teachers indicates that, although the importance of collaboration is acknowledged in the literature on mentoring, recognition of the use of formative assessment principles and practices is mainly implicit. Salient connections between formative assessment and mentoring beginner teachers are therefore unclear. Further research is necessary in this area if teachers with the attributes necessary for developing citizens of the twenty first century are to be fostered through appropriate collaborative mentoring and assessment processes.

References

Davies, P. and Dunnill, R. (2008) ‘Learning Study’ as a model of collaborative practice in initial teacher education, Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy 34, 3-16 Fosnot, C.T. (ed) (1996) Constructivism Theory, Perspectives and Practice, New York: Teachers College Press Graham, P. (1999) Powerful influences: a case of one student teacher renegotiating his perceptions of power relations, Teaching and Teacher Education, 15:5, 523-540 Hargreaves, A. (2003) Teaching in the knowledge society, Berkshire: Open University Press Hargreaves, E. (2007) The validity of collaborative assessment for learning, Assessment in Education, 14:2, 185-199 Harrison, K., Lawson, T. and Wortley, A. (2005) Mentoring the beginner teacher: developing professional autonomy through critical reflection on practice, Reflective Practice, 6:3, 419-441 Hawkey, K. (1998) Mentor pedagogy and student teacher professional development: A study of two mentor relationships, Teaching and Teacher Education, 14:, 657-670 Larochelle, M., Bedwarz, N. & Garrison, J. (1998) Constructivism and Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Mullen, C.A. (2000) Constructing co-mentoring partnerships: Walkways we must travel, Theory into Practice, 39:1, 4-11 Ozga, J. and Jones, R. (2006) Travelling and embedded policy: the case of knowledge transfer, Journal of Education Policy, 21:1, 1-17 Phillips, D.C (ed) (2000) Constructivism in Education: Opinions and Second Opinions on Controversial Issues, Illinois: The National Centre for the Study of Education Ritchie, S.M., Rigano, D. and Lowry, R.J. (2000) Shifting power relations in “the getting of wisdom”, Teaching and Teacher Education, 16:2, 165-177 Stanulis, R.N. and Russell, D. (2000) “Jumping in”: trust and communication in mentoring student teachers, Teaching and Teacher Education, 16:1, 65-80 Wang, J. (2002) 'Learning to teach with mentors in contrived contexts of curriculum and teaching organization: experiences of two Chinese novice teachers and their mentors, Professional Development in Education, 28:2, 339-374

Author Information

Lorele Mackie (presenting / submitting)

University of Stirling

School of Education

Stirling

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