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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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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In this study, the impact of a training program focusing on the deliberate use of interventions during coaching dialogues with prospective teachers was investigated. Video recordings were analyzed of coaching dialogues carried on in the workplace by 28 teachers in primary education with the prospective teachers under their guidance, both before and after they participated in the training program. The main goal of this program was to broaden the repertoire of interventions which coaches use in their dialogues with student teachers. The video recordings made were transcribed verbatim, coded by three independent researchers and analyzed using descriptive statistics and t tests for paired observations. Coaches repertoires of interventions were found to consist of an average of six types of interventions. This average remained stable throughout the training program. After training, a shift from directive towards non-directive interventions was observed. The length of the coaches speaking time decreased, while the number of their interventions increased. After training, coaches structured dialogues to a greater extent. Considerable interindividual variability existed between coaches. The relevance of these findings is that the deliberate use of interventions during coaching dialogue can be influenced through training with results noticeable in the workplace. The findings of this study suggest that the training program studied can serve relatively large numbers of teacher coaches, as its setup requires a feasible amount of effort from schools and participants.
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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 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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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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The extent to which mentor teachers are able to address mentees' individual needs is an important factor in the success of mentoring. A two-dimensional model of mentor teacher roles in mentoring dialogues, entitled MERID, is explored empirically. Data regarding five aspects of mentoring dialogues were collected, using a sample of 20 transcriptions of mentoring dialogues, in which 112 topics were discussed and 440 mentor teacher utterances emerged. Correlations between the five aspects were determined and a cluster analysis was conducted. There is empirical support for the model. It is a useful framework to promote reflection on mentor teachers' supervisory behaviour.
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With this paper, it is illustrated that a focus on entrepreneurship training in the nature and wilderness sector is relevant for diverse organisations and situations. The first curricula on nature entrepreneurship are currently being developed. In this paper the authors describe a project that focusses on educating the next generation of nature entrepreneurs, reflect on the Erasmus Intensive Program ‘European Wilderness Entrepreneur’ and the Wild10 World Café on nature entrepreneurship training. Sharing and learning from experiences is highly recommended to further develop and strengthen the curricula while considering the dynamic context of nature conservation and restoration of ecological processes.
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