1 What does it mean to be a teacher-educator in school?
Teaching is complex. It is no surprise then that learning to teach (as the mentee) and teaching to teach (as a mentor) can be just as complex. Most programmes of initial teacher education in the United Kingdom (UK) now place an emphasis on the crucial role a mentor plays in supporting beginner-teachers’ learning, positioning the mentor as an expert teacher-educator in the school context. The following activity will help you reflect on what mentoring means from differing perspectives.
Activity 1 Mentoring from different perspectives
Watch the video and consider the importance of mentoring in initial teacher education (ITE) from different perspectives.
Identify the different expectations people may place on the role of the mentor in your school, and note down your thoughts in the box below.
An important aspect of the mentor’s role is to help the beginner teacher bring together the more theoretical learning that tends to be part of their university study with the experiential learning they do in school – this will be discussed next.
OpenLearn - A mentoring mindset (Meddylfryd mentora)
Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.