Learning To Became A Mentor: A Study On Expert Teacher Reflections About Their Professional Development

Author(s):

Aline Reali(presenting / submitting)Maria da Graca Nicoletti Mizukami(presenting)Regina Tancredi

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 06 C, Plagiarism and Mentoring - But Not Both at Once

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-11

15:30-17:00

Room:

A-203

Chair:

Peter Gray

Discussant:

Shosh Leshem

Contribution

The paper explores expert teacher reflections about their participation on an Online Mentorship Program (OMP) at the Teachers Portal of Federal University of São Carlos (www.portaldosprofessores.ufscar.br), Brazil. The present study addresses the following interrelated questions: What are the mentors’ reflections about their professional development processes? What types and patterns of reflection can be identified? What were the contents of these reflections? The nature and content of the reflections had been modified throughout the program development? In which way?

The OMP is an on-line program aimed at elementary school teachers at the first grades with up to 5 years of experience directed to novice teachers’ demands and conducted by a group of experienced teachers and researchers. It was carried out by ten mentors coaching 42 novice teachers during 6 to 28 months.

Mentoring programs are increasingly common in state policy in USA and Europe, but vary greatly in their design (Feiman-Nemser, 2001). Formal mentoring, which pairs new teachers with their veteran colleagues, is currently one important strategy to address new teachers’ isolation, frustration, and failure. It is considered to be a promising avenue for the professional development of inexperienced professionals and of those who work as mentors themselves (Sundli, 2007). It is also a challenging activity on account of a number of factors associated with the interactive processes between mentors and mentees: conflicting ideas and attitudes; lack of confidence; partial information; incompatible schedules; and communication difficulties.

Brazil does not have consolidated public policies in mentoring novice teachers. Moreover, there are few studies on teacher educators and on the professional standing of mentors, and none on the education, activities, and knowledge of mentors, which makes it more difficult to promote their professional development.

The reserach theoretical framework includes literature on teacher learning and professional development (Shulman 1986, 1987, Ball & Cohen 1999, Borko 2004), the first years of teaching (Grossman, Thompson & Valencia 2001, Zanten & Grospiron 2001, Fantilli & McDougall, 2009), mentoring processes ( Wang & Odell 2002; Norman & Feiman-Nemser, 2005); reflection on pedagogical action (Hatton and Smith, 1995; Rodgers, 2002;El-Dib, 2007) and online teacher education (McDonald & Klein, 2003; Reali, Tancredi& Mizukami ,2012)

Method

The research design adopted in this investigation can be characterized as action-research founded on constructive-collaborative strategies (Cole & Knowles 1993). This kind of research-intervention model implies collaborative interaction between teachers and researchers and emphasizes the importance of establishing multiple purposes and interpretations and dialog that requires the participants’ engagement in conversation, exchange and reciprocal professional development. True collaboration allows mutual understanding and consensus; democratic decision-making and common action. A constructive sense is rendered by the presupposition that teaching is an ever-changing process. In this perspective, situations seen as dilemmatic or problematic ask for collective decision-making and problem solving processes. The investigation steps, data collection tools and analysis were defined by the researchers alone whereas the OMP activities were defined by the researchers and mentors. The mentors participants were experienced schoolteachers that have little or no teaching educators practice and they participated of the elaboration of the mentorship program foundations, defining with the researchers its curriculum and characteristics. The primary data source considered in this study was the mentor´s weekly reflexive journals during their three year participation on the OMP.

Expected Outcomes

The mentors´ narratives showed that the expert teachers’ lived different phases (beginning; maturation and mastery) in their professional development processes to learn to be a mentor and each one with specific concerns, fears, dilemmas and feelings. The reflections referred to their personal analysis included the expectative about the mentees professional development and teacher learning; the mentees tasks description and justification; their doubts and dilemmas in the mentoring process; their acts and decisions their professional learning processes and their personal theories about the OMP, the mentees and themselves, schools and the researchers. The mentors narratives showed that they establish relations between theory and practice, the configuration and detailing of processes of professional development and reflection on the part of the mentors and novices as well as the production of conceptions about these processes.

References

Ball, D. L. e Cohen, D. K.- Developing Practice, Developing Practitioners: toward a practice-based theory of professional education. In: Darling-Hammond, L. Sykes, G. (Eds) - Teaching as the Learning Profession: Handbook of Policy and Practice, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999, 3-32. Borko, H. - Professional development and teacher learning: mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher. v.33, no. 8,2004, 3-15. Fantilli,R.D & Mc Dougall, D. A study of novice teachers: Challenges and supports in the first years. Teaching and Teacher Education 25, 2009, 814–825. McDonald, J.P. & Klein, E. J. – Networking for teacher learning: toward a theory of effective design, Teacher College Record, v. 105, no. 8, 2003, 1606-1621. Norman, P. & Feiman-Nemser, S. Mind activity in teaching and mentoring, Journal of Teaching and Teacher Education, 21,2005, 681-697 Knowles, J.G. and Cole, A L Teacher Development Partnership Research: a focus on methods and issues. American Educational Reasearch Journal, 30,3, 1993, 473-495,. Reali, A.M.M.R.; Tancredi, R.M. S. P.; Mizukami, M.G.N. – Online mentoring as a tool for Professional development and change of novice and experienced teachers: a Brazilian Experience. In: Denner, V.P.; Myers, J. Virtual Professional Development and Informal Learning via Social Networks. Hershley, PA: IGI Global, 2012, 205-220. Shulman, L.S .- Knowledge and teaching: foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57 n.1, 1987,1-22. Shulman, L.S. - Those who understand: knowledge grow in teaching. Educational Researcher, v.15, n.2,1986, 4-14. Sundli, L. Mentoring: a new mantra for education? Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 2007, 201-214. Van Zanten, A.; Grospiron, M. F. Les carrières enseignantes dans les établissements difficiles: fuite, adaptation et développement professionnel. VET Enjeux, n.124, 2001, 224-268. Wang, J. & Odell, S.J. – Mentored learning to teach according to standards-based reform: a critical review. Review of Educational Research, 72,3, 2002, 481-547.

Author Information

Aline Reali (presenting / submitting)

Federal University of São Carlos

Sao Carlos SP

Maria da Graca Nicoletti Mizukami (presenting)

Presbyterian University Mackenzie

CEFT - EAHC

Sao Paulo

Regina Tancredi

Mackenzie Presbiterian University, Brazil

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