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.
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In the context of developing mentor teachers' use of supervisory skills, two consecutive studies were conducted, using stimulated recall. Firstly, with eight participants, an instrument was developed to categorize contents of interactive cognitions. Secondly, with 30 participants, the instrument was applied to uncover contents of mentor teachers' interactive cognitions, before and after training in supervisory skills. After training, mentor teachers demonstrate an increased awareness of their use of supervisory skills. This indicates that mentor teachers not only seem to emphasize pupil learning and needs when conducting a mentoring dialogue, but simultaneously focus on their own supervisory behaviour.
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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 paper, we discuss the need for mentor teacher preparation and briefly 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 research assessing mentor teachers’ use and acquisition of supervisory skills in mentoring dialogues, before and after the SMART programme, are presented. In conclusion, implications for mentor teacher development and preparation, and suggestions for further are pointed out.
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Triggered by highly publicised corporate scandals, changing societal expectations and the collapse of financial markets, the roles of boards of directors have changed significantly in safeguarding the interest of shareholders and other stakeholders. Yet, relatively little is known about contemporary challenges non–executive directors face and whether their boards are well–equipped for their new tasks. Based on self–assessment reports by supervisory boards, a survey and interviews with supervisory board members, this paper investigates the challenges non–executive directors face in the Netherlands, particularly after a decade of corporate governance reform. Non–executive directors' inadequate role in scrutinising executive directors' performance, information asymmetries and dysfunctional working relationships between executive and non–executive directors are among the greatest challenges indicated by non–executive directors on Dutch supervisory boards. The paper discusses several implications for scholars and practitioners and provides a unique insight in boardroom dynamics.
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The aim of this study is to clarify how pre-service teachers perceive mentor teachers' use of mentoring skills. Sixty stimulated-recall interviews were conducted, each in connection with a previously recorded mentoring dialogue. A quantitative analysis showed that six types of mentoring skills appeared to be perceived by pre-service teachers as offering emotional support and five others as offering task assistance. After mentor teachers were trained in mentoring skills, shifts in their frequencies of use of distinct skills, as observed by independent raters, corresponded to a considerable extent with shifts in frequencies of pre-service teacher perceptions of mentor teachers' mentoring behaviour.
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In Nederlandse scholen zijn jaarlijks vele tienduizenden praktijkbegeleiders (mentoren) van leraren in opleiding actief. De meeste mentoren doen dit begeleidingswerk naast hun hoofdtaak als leraar van leerlingen. Een ervaren leraar is niet per definitie ook een goede mentor. Om mentoren te ondersteunen in hun belangrijke werk verzorgen veel scholen, vaak in samenwerking met lerarenopleidingen, trainingen in begeleidingsvaardigheden. Voor Frank Crasborn en Paul Hennissen vormde hun ervaring als lerarenopleider en trainer van honderden mentoren de inspiratiebron voor het opzetten van onderzoek. Dit leidde tot een onderzoeksproject van acht deelstudies, waarin zowel naar gedragsaspecten als naar gerelateerde cognitieve aspecten van begeleidingsgedrag van mentoren werd gekeken. De resultaten van het onderzoek leidden tot een bijdrage aan de ordening van begrippen en concepten die gebruikt worden om begeleidingsgedrag van begeleiders in gesprekken met leraren in opleiding in kaart te brengen en te analyseren; een gedetailleerd beeld van begeleidingsgedrag in authentieke begeleidingsgesprekken en de manier waarop leraren in opleiding dit gedrag percipiëren; het blootleggen van cognities van mentoren, gekoppeld aan begeleidingsgedrag in gesprekken met leraren in opleiding; meer inzicht in de reikwijdte van training op de ontwikkeling van het doen en denken van begeleiders in begeleidingsgesprekken; een instrument voor reflectie op begeleidingsgedrag van mentoren; aanwijzingen voor verbetering van trainingen voor mentoren.
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Welke concrete veranderingen hebben plaatsgevonden op het werk en welke 21st century skills zijn of worden essentieel om het werk te kunnen blijven uitvoeren? Deze vraag stelden lectoren Petra Biemans (Hogeschool Inholland) en Ellen Sjoer (De Haagse Hogeschool) zichzelf. Het antwoord op deze vraag is te vinden in het boek ‘Werk verandert. 21st century skills in de praktijk'. Spelen onderwijsinstellingen voldoende en tijdig in op de vaardigheden die toekomstbestendige werknemers en ondernemers nodig hebben? Of krijgen studenten zodra ze de arbeidsmarkt betreden een cultuurshock omdat het onderwijs achterblijft? Hoe en welke van de 21st century skills effectief in het onderwijs geïmplementeerd kunnen worden vereist volgens de lectoren nog vervolgonderzoek.
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The main goal of the current study is to capture differential frequencies of mentor teachers' reflective moments, as indicators of different levels of consciousness in mentor teachers' use and acquisition of supervisory skills during mentoring dialogues. For each of the 30 participants, two mentoring dialogues were analyzed: one before and one after they were trained in supervisory skills. To capture the frequency of reflective moments, the stimulated recall technique and a specially developed push‐button device were combined in a two‐method approach. The data of the study suggest the existence of different levels of consciousness in acquiring and using supervisory skills, the possibility of measuring reflectivity using concurrent and retrospective methods simultaneously, and the potential of such measurements to inform and improve professional development opportunities for mentor teachers.
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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.
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The dialogue between a mentor teacher and a prospective teacher is a key element in the supervision of prospective teachers in the workplace. This literature study deals with the issue of how to conceptualize the supervisory behaviour of mentor teachers in mentoring dialogues by systematically examining empirical literature on aspects of mentor teachers' behaviour during dialogues with prospective teachers. From the findings a model is derived which can be used to describe and map mentor teachers' behaviour in mentoring dialogues. The model may be helpful in the further development of the quality of mentor teachers' behaviour in mentoring dialogues.
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