University of Hull

TLLS ITE PartnershipMentoring Research Project(s)

MentoringThree distinct projects

1) Payment for all mentors 2) All observations joint - between mentor and

university tutor3) Drawing on wider college resources to

contextualize mentoring process as work-based learning

• Mentoring has been linked to better career advancement, more career development opportunities, higher levels of career maturity and greater overall job satisfaction by protégés.

McDowall-Long, 2004: p. 520

What drives mentoring

good or bad mentoring

Driven by values

Driven by the job to be done

Driven by the

context

Payment for all mentors

• What is standard practice for the sector? • A theory of mentoring is elusive according to

Bozeman and Feeney (2007) who posit that the most important rule for developing a useful concept is to be able to state its boundary conditions. Is mentoring:

• Training or socialization concerned with• Role models, empowerment or professional

growth• School-based model extended across sectors

• ‘Even for those professional staff engaged in mentoring, the resource-intensive nature of the work, and the emotional demands it places upon mentors, risk creating high levels of stress.’ (Hulbert; in Colley, 2002: p. 268)

• The current PCET ITT mentoring role is negatively influenced by the requirement to assess the teaching ability of mentees and this becomes an overly dominant aspect of mentor training

Involving the work-based learning

team• Ensures students can not say I mentioned this

as they have clear instruction to report issues to placement team, this is a bonus as will help prevent later legal issues around placement as student has to take action and it can not just be a casual discussion with a busy tutor or mentor led reporting to tutor, there is an intermediary to take solution focused action on behalf of both parties.

University Centre, Grimsby

joint observations• What is meant by subject knowledge, particularly

in vocational areas where there is no agreed syllabus of what constitutes different levels of subject knowledge for teachers in the LLS? Is there sufficient capacity within the sector to deliver such curricula? If the government wants mentoring in the LLS to support subject pedagogy, is there strong evidence to support the idea that each subject has a distinctive pedagogy? (Fisher and Webb 2006: p. 341)

Involving the work-based learning

team• Mentor and student need to be clear around

purpose of placement visit as one mentor was concerned that an in-service visit may become a second appraisal and some mentors and students used the visit to give course feedback which is not the forum for such discussions

episteme

metis

oikodomi

Work-based learning

• There was some initial storming and norming and confusion around roles and reluctance by work placement coordinator to be involved with placements due to conflict of interest. This settled down and placement officer was invited to meetings to report on findings and help to ease communications. Now seem to be ‘performing’

What inspired the research

• an essential aim of the training is that teachers should have the skills of teaching in their own specialist or curriculum area. The taught elements of teacher training courses are likely to be generic, because of the range of teachers taking part. Subject-specific skills must be acquired in the teachers’ workplace and from vocational or academic experience. Mentoring, either by line managers, subject experts or experienced teachers in related curriculum areas, is essential.

DFES 2004

Methodology

• Action research based on the preference of each partner towards a common outcome. The experience of each project will inform practice next year. Aim to ensure as close a link as possible between what should be done with how things get done.

Outcomes and Impact

• Too soon to say

• The initial direction has already changed (payment for all mentors / cash or iPad)

• Trainee expereince

Work-based learning

• Because all trainees are visited there is no way of there not being an engaged mentor, this in addition to all mentors undertaking a joint observation with the tutor early on in the year. It seems to have given the mentors more visibility.

• mentors’ input is crucial as they know what CPD, staff development or in-service training activities are available for the orchestration of subject support. They do not attempt to do everything themselves. The schools mentors are trained by the HEI and given one hour a week (36 hours a year per mentee) to de-brief what happened in the placement and to plan the week ahead as well as orchestrating the subject support, rather than being sole repository of subject knowledge and subject pedagogy. The contrast with the post-compulsory PGCE is stark

mentors are more visible

Some conclusions …

• the role of a supportive institutional framework, an ‘architecture’ for mentoring for (Cunningham 2007) incentivising staff Further research could focus on extracting and evaluating the active ingredients of successful mentoring relationships for use in the sector.

Some conclusions …

• Mentor training should develop the teaching skills of the mentees in a developmental way as opposed to being based on the current judgemental model.

references

• Eliahoo, Rebecca (2009) Meeting the potential for mentoring in Initial Teacher Education: mentors’ perspectives from the Lifelong Learning Sector. Teaching in lifelong learning: a journal to inform and improve practice, 1 (2). pp. 64-75. ISSN 2040-0993

• Ewan Ingleby (2014) Developing reflective practice or judging teaching performance? The implications for mentor training, Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 19:1, 18-32, DOI: 10.1080/13596748.2014.872917

• Shobrook, Russell (2011) Remission and recognition - the two Rs of mentoring: listening to the mentors of trainee teachers. Teaching in lifelong learning: a journal to inform and improve practice, 3 (1). pp. 40-51. ISSN 2040-0993