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.
In this study, a data feedback program to improve teachers’ science and technology (S&T) teaching skills was designed and tested. The aim was to understand whether and how the four design principles underlying this program stimulated the intended teacher support. We examined how teachers in different phases of their career applied and experienced the employed design principles’ key aspects. Eight in-service teachers and eight pre-service teachers attended the data feedback program and kept a logbook in the meantime. Group interviews were held afterwards. Findings show that applying the four employed design principles’ key aspects did support and stimulate in- and pre-service teachers in carrying out data feedback for improving their S&T teaching. However, some key aspects were not applied and/or experienced as intended by all attending teachers. The findings provide possible implications for the development and implementation of professional development programs to support in - and pre-service teachers’ S&T teaching using data feedback.
Mathematics teacher educators in primary teacher education need expert knowledge and skills in teaching in primary school, in subject matter and research. Most starting mathematics teacher educators possess only part of this knowledge and skills. A professional development trajectory for this group is developed and tested, where a design based research is used to evaluate the design. This paper describes the professional development trajectory and design. We conclude that the professional development design should focus on mathematical knowledge for teaching, should refer to both teacher education and primary education, should offer opportunities for cooperative learning, and need to use practice based research as a developmental tool.
