Training Mentor Teachers for Effective Supervision: A Focus on Cognition and Behavior

• In Event: 63.071 - Core Issues in the Study of Mentoring in Preservice Education: Toward an Integrative Research Agenda

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of mentoring is to improve pre-service teachers’ learning (potential). This may happen if mentor teachers become better at adapting their supervisory behavior to individual pre-service teachers’ characteristics and learning needs. In this perspective, called ‘adaptive’ mentoring’ (Ralph & Walker, 2010), mentoring is looked upon as a holistic process that draws heavily on several mentor roles. Putting this stance into practice requires versatility in mentor's use of supervisory skills during mentoring dialogues as an important educational context. The main objective of the research was to learn about mentor teachers’ use and acquisition of a broad repertoire of supervisory skills in mentoring dialogues.
Theoretical framework: Levels of competence in a specific professional domain, such as supervisory skills, can be inferred both from the mentor's actions and from the cognitions directly connected to those actions: the so-called ‘interactive cognitions’ (Clark & Peterson, 1986). Interactive cognitions and behavior mutually influence each other as they unfold and evolve over time. In this study, a model is used describing the linking-pin function of interactive cognitions between actions and behavior.
Methods and data sources: Behavioral and cognitive aspects of mentors' supervisory behavior were investigated, both before and after mentor teachers were trained in supervisory skills. The participants were 70 mentors and 30 pre-service teachers in primary education. Behavioral aspects were investigated by means of a literature review, and by using video-recordings of authentic mentoring dialogues. To clarify pre-service teachers’ perceptions of mentors' use of supervisory skills, a stimulated-recall technique was used. Cognitive aspects were studied, using a stimulated recall technique to uncover contents of mentors' interactive cognitions related to their supervisory skills.
Results: Firstly, a two-dimensional model was developed to describe mentor teacher roles in mentoring dialogues. Secondly, one of the model’s dimensions, the use of distinct supervisory skills, was studied in a more detailed way. After training, shifts in the frequency of use of supervisory skills were found. As a result, pre-service teachers were more challenged to play an active role in the mentoring dialogue. Related frequencies and contents of mentors' interactive cognitions suggest that most mentor teachers have little awareness of their own supervisory behavior. After training we found a heightened awareness of their supervisory skills. This situation concurs with initial stages of acquiring expertise, where a person is concerned with his or her own performance (Dreyfuss & Dreyfuss, 1986).
Significance: The research project produced a coherent two-dimensional model to study supervisory behavior in mentoring dialogues. Also, mentor teachers’ full range of overt supervisory behavior in mentoring dialogues was portrayed in a detailed way. In addition, mentor teachers’ interactive cognitions during authentic dialogues with their mentees were disclosed. Moreover, the initial stage in mastering new supervisory skills, sett of by a training program, was clarified. Altogether, the findings seem to underline Orland-Barak’s (2001) statement that becoming a mentor does not emerge naturally of being a good teacher, but is a highly conscious and gradual process of developing communicative competencies.

Authors

• Frank Crasborn, Fontys University of Applied Science

• Paul Hennissen, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences

• Fred A.J. Korthagen, Utrecht University

• Niels C. Brouwer, Scholing voor leraren