Dear All
My colleague, Rachel Lofthouse, was until last year
Secondary PGCE director. Along with secondary colleagues they introduced a
process whereby the PGCE students filmed themselves teaching, backed up by a
specific protocol about questions generated by both parties. The video was
then the focus of mentoring. She has researched the impact -
generally a positive response with mentors reporting a shift in approach and
thinking. Thhis mirrors the effect that video seems to have on coaching,
it helps even up power relationships as the video provides a
(relatively) neutral record which PGCEer can interrogate, as well as
mentor. She presented her results at EARLI this summer.
Best wishes
David Leat
Dear Rosalind (and All)
I wonder what implications this has
for the often encountered 'pump prime' model of mentor 'training' offered by
universities rather than the more gradual (and more expensive) process of
mentor development that a few PGCE programmes offer?
I would be
interested to know a little more about the context of your research. I am
wondering if the mentors you interviewed were working with universities with
what could be called ' the pump prime model'? I feel one should not
expect this to have much impact on assisting mentors to develop theoretical
underpinnings for their practice. In the same way research shows that a
one off or occasional in-service course usually, although not always, has
little sustained impact upon teachers' practice. It seems to me that in the
pump prime input model does not allow for learning to engage in any meaningful
way, leaving the mentors to revert o the way of thinking and practice that is
familiar based on their own experience.
There is perhaps a parallel
here in Calderhead's research into novice teachers' thinking that might be
useful to consider. Under pressure novice teachers revert to their own
theories of teaching - developed through their own experiences of being in
school. This phenomenon would almost certainly be prevalent where
mentoring experienced in teacher training course doesn't elicit deep
reflection.
If Jack Whitehead (1989) is right - and I think he is
- practitioners and in our focus, mentors - develop their own 'living'
theories which change and develop - where there is reflection that leads
practitioners to challenge their assumptions.
Perhaps we should develop
further ideas about what constitutes 'mentoring' and 'coaching' in ITT? The
pump prime goal orientated model of 'mentoring' in some PGCE programmes is not
mentoring at all - it is not holistic and developmental but linked to a focus
on competences (goals) becomes narrow and skills driven.
To return to
your research - and thank you so much for sharing it with us... I am curious
to know if its outcomes show us that ITT coaching is not sufficient as a model
to develop mentors' living theories of mentoring - and so they retain their
own espoused theories of 'mentoring' which is holistically far closer to what
they engage in with their mentees and they leave aside deliberately or not
'coaching'.
Early ideas here ... that need much more development
... what do you think?
best wishes,
Sarah
Rosalind
Rice <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
re.
Mentors' ignore espoused theory from whatever source and instead rely on
their experience, which forms the basis for their own theories