This study investigates the extent to which mentor teachers experience reflective moments during mentoring dialogues. Any description of the phases of professional growth includes the degree to which explicit action goes hand in hand with deliberate consideration and thinking. There is little known about the thought processes of mentor teachers during their dialogues with students in the workplace. This study analyses 60 dialogues of experienced mentor teachers, both before and after they receive training in supervisory skills. Two methods of investigation are used: firstly, a stimulated recall interview following the dialogue, which traces reflective moments and secondly, a specially developed push-button device used to record these moments as they occur. During mentoring dialogues, the mentor teachers' behaviour comprises few reflective moments. Significantly, these occur more frequently after training. This seems to not only confirm the view that much of professional behaviour occurs automatically and instinctively, but also to support the premise that cognitive processes are important in the acquisition of supervisory skills. The combination of both methods of recording seems to make it possible to achieve a more accurate registration of the number of times these moments occur.
Mentor teachers need a versatile supervisory skills repertoire. Besides taking the prevalent role of daily advisor and instructor, mentor teachers should also be able to stimulate reflection in student teachers. Video recordings were analyzed of 60 mentoring dialogues, both before and after a mentor teacher training aiming at developing the encourager role. Mentor teachers' repertoires of supervisory skills were found to consist of an average of seven supervisory skills. After training, a shift was observed in the frequencies and duration with which supervisory skills were used. Although considerable inter-individual variability existed between mentor teachers, training positively affected the use of supervisory skills for stimulating reflection in student teachers.
The quality of mentoring in teacher education is an essential component of a powerful learning environment for teachers. There is no single approach to mentoring that will work in the same way for every teacher in each context. Nevertheless, most mentor teachers hardly vary their supervisory behaviour in response to varying mentoring situations. Developing versatility in mentor teachers' use of supervisory skills, then, is an important challenge. In this chapter, we discuss the need for mentor teacher preparation and explain the focus, content, and pedagogy underlying a particular training programme for mentor teachers, entitled Supervision Skills for Mentor teachers to Activate Reflection in Teachers (SMART). Also, findings from several studies assessing mentor teachers' supervisory roles and use of supervisory skills in mentoring dialogues, before and after the SMART programme, are presented. In addition, implications and perspectives for mentor teacher development and preparation are discussed.
