Mentoring for school-based teacher education

Ieva Margevica-Grinberga,Indra Odiņa

doi:10.18844/cjes.v16i5.6348

Ieva Margevica-Grinberga, Indra Odiņa

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v16i5.6348

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Abstract

Due to the shortage of teachers at schools, the Ministry of Education and Science in Latvia has devoted special attention to fast track of teachers to teaching starting new teacher education project to attract capable and motivated professionals from various fields to the work of a teacher. This also raised the necessity for the development of programme and training competent teachers to act as mentors in school-based teacher education programme. The study aimed to explore and evaluate mentor education in the context of work-based (school-based) initial teacher education. The research sample consisted of 55 participants of mentor professional development programme and 2 mentor trainers. The data analysis of participants’ questionnaires, reflections, mentor trainers’ self-evaluations and feedback on participants’ assignments led to the guidelines for building partnership between schools and universities to promote a common understanding of school-based teacher education. Keywords: mentor education; school-based teacher education; student teacher; university-school partnership

Highlights

Initial teacher education in Latvia has been organized in two ways representing two models of the entry point into the subject teacher’s profession: novice teachers who obtain the teacher’s qualification via a concurrent model and novice teachers who obtain the teacher’s qualification via consecutive model
It is vital to train competent teachers to act as mentors in school-based teacher education programme
The better students are taught, the better they are likely to perform. Since these student teachers get to experience teaching while still engaged in their studies, they have sufficient time both to learn from the victories and mistakes of their mentors so that by the time they are done with studies, they are either ready to become better teachers or have changed their career paths

Summary

Introduction

Initial teacher education in Latvia has been organized in two ways representing two models of the entry point into the subject teacher’s profession: novice teachers who obtain the teacher’s qualification via a concurrent model and novice teachers who obtain the teacher’s qualification via consecutive model. Graduates obtain the qualification of two subject teachers in four years, and there is a regular connection with schools (Mikelsone, Odina 2017). Students obtain the qualification of one subject teacher in five years, where the last two years are connected to school teaching. The alternative pathway – programme “Mission Possible” recruited university graduates with other backgrounds and professionals with no knowledge in teacher education for a two-year teaching position in a school (Mikelsone, Odina 2017). Alternative pathways give “low priority to educational theory and research and to scientific knowledge. They rely on the candidates’ previous education to provide adequate grounding in subject matter. The curriculum itself emphasizes learning by doing” (Musset 2010: 22)

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