Investigation of a Mentor-Teacher Qualification Standard through the Analysis of Interaction in Mentoring Conversations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate a mentor-teacher qualification standard to support professional development for beginning secondary science teachers. The participants were four mentee teachers and four mentor-teachers. The relationship between the development of beginning science teachers teaching practice and characteristics of the mentoring and interactions was investigated by analyzing conversations between mentor and mentee teachers during the collaborative mentoring. Three mentoring conversation records and transcripts during mentoring program were collected. An analytical framework of mentoring conversations was used in the analysis of mentoring conversations and RTOP was used for lesson analysis to determine the development of teaching practice. The results show that the types of interactions during mentoring varied according to the mentoring teams. Mentors who encouraged reflective thinking induced a higher level of teaching in their mentees. The mentor qualification standard was determined from the relationship between the characteristics of the interaction and the improvement in beginning teacher’s teaching practice. To be an effective mentor, the mentor should be able to 1) lead the interaction in a manner that encourages the exchange of opinions, 2) induce reflective thinking and ability to achieve reflective practice following reflective thinking, 3) provide clear explanations and suggest detailed methods, 4) lead conversations that encourage reflective thinking with questions about teaching supported techniques.