INTRODUCTION

This chapter begins by considering similarities and differences among mentors, supervisors and others who help teachers learn and develop. Drawing on the work of many in the field, conditions needed for mentoring to be effective are discussed. Finally, a view of what mentoring is, what mentors are, and what they do is presented.

SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

TERMINOLOGICAL CONFUSIONS

One school has a teacher called a “mentor” who is responsible for students from university based initial teacher-preparation programs during their placements in the school. Another school has a teacher called a “supervisor” who has a similar job description. In two further schools, two people both have the title “mentor” and are charged with “looking after” trainees on school placement and yet engage in very different day-to-day practices in their workplaces and in relation to their mentees. One education system has “professional mentors,” “subject mentors,” and an “ITT” (Initial Teacher Training) coordinator involved with the learning of a student-teacher in a school; in another system there is a single “mentor,” or “supervisor.” There is a certain amount of terminological confusion in the field.

Many (e.g., Bailey 2006) note this terminological confusion. It seems to result in part from different historical views of the process of teacher learning and the roles of others in supporting that process. The role-title “supervisor” in teacher education, it could be argued, is a leftover from a view of teacher learning as a straightforward process of practicing to “do it right.” The role of the supervisor was to assess through observation whether it was “done right” or not, passing on his or her assessment and giving the trainee advice on what to improve and how to do better next time. However, much of what makes for good teaching is not observable, and views of teacher learning have shifted to include constructivist (e.g., Richardson 1997), socio-cultural (e.g., Lave and Wenger 1991) and cognitive skill theory (e.g., Tomlinson 1995) perspectives. In addition to developing classroom skills, student language teachers need to be helped to participate in a professional community, become willing to investigate themselves and their teaching, become better at noticing (Mason 2002) – a crucial underpinning skill for investigations as well as responsive teaching – and develop complex, insightful and “robust reasoning” (Johnson 1999).