Mentor TrainingUEL Secondary Teacher Education Partnership

Moving trainee teachers forward – getting a Grade 1.

Warren KiddLeader in Learning and Teaching

Secondary ITE TeamCass School of Education and Communities,University of East London

Introduction

What do we know about assessment for learning?

Themes

1. 'Trainees are learners too'. 2. Strategies for moving trainees' learning

forward3. Assessment for professional learning4. Getting a Grade 1 5. Ways of Observing and seeing - A Pedagogy for

Mentors6. Critical Feedback and Models of Feedback and

Feedforward

Brookfield’s Critical Lenses

Brookfield (1995) suggests that we look at situations from 4 viewpoints:

our colleagues

ourselves

our learners

theoretical

literature

Teachers’ professional learning

Research informed practice

What is in a name?

What is in a name?

from Greek Mentōr, the name of the adviser of the young Telemachus in Homer's Odyssey

What is in a name?

Mentor….

…What other words and phrases come to mind?

What is in a name?...Mentor noun • an experienced and trusted adviser• an experienced person in a company or

educational institution who trains and counsels new employees or students

• verb • [with object] advise or train (someone,

especially a younger colleague)

• “…a nurturing process in which a more skilled or experienced person, serving as a role model, teaches, sponsors, encourages, counsels, and befriends a less skilled or less experienced person for the purpose of promoting the latter’s professional and/or personal development. Mentoring functions are carried out within the context of an ongoing, caring relationship between the mentor and protégé”

Trainees are learners too!• They have expectations, prior knowledge and

experience brought to any learning experience

• They need practical experience

• They need to develop their ‘craft’

• They need clear feedback on their learning

• They need confidence building

• They need to develop reflective skills

• They need to develop the appropriate professional values for their professional context

Question

How do we go about the process of ‘mentoring’?

Tell us about…

• what you think effective mentoring is

• what worries you most about mentoring

• your experiences of the role for yourself

• your experiences of your trainee/colleague

• your experiences of UEL

4 key mentoring processes

• ‘(ways of) seeing’ and ‘observing lessons’• Giving appropriate feedback• Encouraging reflective craft practice• Turning feedback into feedforward…

…and moving trainees on.

Task

How do we help support trainees to move forward with their practice?

Task

Consider the examples that follow of targets provided to some current secondary trainees after an assessed lesson observation.

Q: How would you, if you were the mentor, support the trainee to move forward?

Example 1

TARGET 1 You need to plan for a more varied 'assessment diet' - more variety in the tasks and tools you use to assess learners. TS2, 6

• TARGET 2 I think you would really improve your teaching by developing a better questioning technique. Develop a wide range of different types of questions which you ask in different strategic ways. TS1, 2, 6

Example 2

• TARGET 3 When you plan, linked to your attempts at differentiation, think about the stretch and challenge. This is a top set but they are all doing the same tasks and in the same time-frame. TS1, 2, 5

• TARGET 4 Think about your strategies for tackling low level disruption. There are places here when you do not take it on, and should do so. TS7

Ways of seeing…

Consider the video of the lesson.

How would we ‘professionally intervene’ and ‘guide’?

How would we help move the teacher forward?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74BdTBKiAcQ

Further reading

MENTORING AND COACHING FOR PROFESSIONALS: A STUDY OF THE RESEARCH EVIDENCE

Lord et. al.Research conducted by theNational Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) (October 2008)

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/publications/MCM01/MCM01.pdf