Mentoring Practice: Teacher development through scaffolding (Randall &Thornton, 2003b), collaboration (Fanselow , 1988; Richards & Lockhart, 1992; Sheal, 1989) and reflection (Farrell, 2013).
Glossary of Noteworthy Readings to Explore
Glossary of supervisor names and terms to highlight differing perspectives in the nature of the role of teacher helpers or facilitators:
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counselor: Bowers (1987)
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critical educator: Pennycook (2004)
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mentor: Hobson et al. (2009)
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supervisor: Gebhard (1984); Zepeda & Ponticelli (1998), Chamberlin (2000); Wajnryb (1998)
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trainer: Engin (2015a); Copland (2011)
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tutor: Engin (2015b)
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visiting teacher or peer: Fanselow (1988); Richards & Lockhart (1992), Farrell (2013); Sheal (1989)
Author name (year): Title. Short descriptions of articles.
(hyperlink to article/chapter)
Bowers (1987): Developing perceptions of the classroom: Observation and evaluation, training and counselling. Proposes a meticulous approach to counselling and training that provides relevant and structured feedback to the teacher, with clear professional development aims.
Copland (2011): Negotiating face in feedback conferences: A linguistic ethnographic analysis. Mentors must navigate “face threats,” never making “face attacks” In giving feedback, mentors should “Rules of the Game”, which depend on the conventions and expectations of the social group or network context within which feedback is given.
Chamberlin (2000): TESL Degree Candidates' Perceptions of Trust in Supervisors. Mentoring strategies that result in “good” mentoring do not necessarily come naturally to mentors, and in most cases need to be learned. Reflective supervision should involve both teachers reflecting on their teaching practice, and supervisors and mentors reflecting on their supervision and mentoring practices.
Engin (2015a): Trainer talk in post-observation feedback sessions: An exploration of scaffolding. Defines scaffolding - decreasing task difficulty by providing support that is gradually removed - as an interactional phenomenon, that accounts for the dynamic between the trainer and trainee, as well as context and intentions.
Engin (2015b): Written artefacts in post-conference feedback sessions: the running commentary as a support for teacher learning. Written artifacts create learning affordances to mentees by making the feedback more tangible, and helps mentor and mentee be on the same page. But written artifacts can limit the scope and direction of feedback, as well as confer too much power to the mentor in leading the feedback dialogue.
Faez & Valeo (2012): TESOL teacher education: Novice teachers' perceptions of their preparedness and efficacy in the classroom. The skills teachers need vary greatly with the context within which they are teaching. Teachers feel better prepared to teach having gained experience in the classroom context and established themselves as teachers.
Fanselow (1988): “Let's see”: contrasting conversations about teaching. Explores a collaborative approach to supervision and observation with the main argument that there should be no help involved in the concept of supervision or observation. Teachers learn from each other; supervision should be about peer collaboration.
Farrell (2008): Critical incidents in ELT initial teacher training. Critical incidents are defined as occurrences in the classroom that were not planned and that are analyzed to gain a deeper understanding of both teaching and learning. The goal is to reflect on the incidents within the larger context in which they are situated.
Farrell (2009): The novice teacher experience. Highlights the challenges faced by novice teachers in their transition into their first year of teaching. Suggests approaches to better preparing teachers to transition from student-teachers to teachers.
Farrell (2013): Critical incident analysis through narrative reflective practice: A case study. Critical incidents analysis is described as an exploration through self-reflexive story-telling leading to constructive criticism. A narrative reflexive practice is used as a tool for teacher empowerment and professional development.
Gebhard (1984): Models of Supervision: Choices. Five approaches to mentoring are proposed: directive, non-directive, alternative, collaborative, and creative.
Hawkins & Norton (2009): Critical language teacher education. A discussion on the concept of being critical and what it has come to mean in education and applied linguistics theory and practice, as well as in L2 teaching and language teacher education.
Hobson, Ashby, Malderez, & Tomlinson (2009): Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and what we don't. A review of empirical research on mentoring beginning teachers. Discusses the conditions for mentoring to be successful based on mentor and teacher reports.
Kamhi-Stein (2009): Teacher preparation and nonnative English-speaking educators. Chapter 9 of The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education (Burns & J. C. Richards, Eds.) questions what should be included in teacher training program. Issues addressed iwhether native speaker teacher training should involve more grammar instruction than non-native speaker teacher training.
Kanakri, A. (2017): Second language Teacher education: Preparing Teachers for the Needs of Second Language Learners. Reviews changes in practice in second language teacher education between 1960 and 2010. Discusses how research has addressed the issue of language teacher education that responds to second language learner needs.
Norton & Toohey (2011): Identity, language learning, and social change. Learners, teachers and language are situated within a larger social context. A review of studies investigating the role of identity categories such as race, gender and sexuality in language learning, as well as the impact of technology on learner identity.
Pennycook (2004): Critical moments in a TESOL praxicum. A reflection on critical moments, which occur when a novel approach is adopted, new understanding is acquired, there is a change, for example in the direction of a discourse. A reflexive approach to using critical incidents as a tool for professional development is proposed.
Randall and Thornton (2003a): Learning to teach. Chapter 2 of Advising and Supporting Teachers examines how teachers learn to teach and how to better advise them. How does a teacher become an effective practitioner? Types of knowledge involved in teaching: theory vs practice.
Randall & Thornton (2003b): 9 Ways of talking to teachers 4: Towards critical self-awareness. Chapter 9 of Advising and Supporting Teachers describes an approach to mentoring involving catalytic interventions, in which mentors facilitate teacher self-direction through critical incident analysis, is proposed. Mentors provide effective advice through scaffolding to develop teachers who are independent, autonomous and professional.
Richards & Lockhart (1992): Teacher development through peer observation. Describes a program implementing peer observation to promote teacher professional development through learning about new teaching styles and engaging in critical reflection. The recommended focus of observation is to collect information on specific teaching behaviours and procedures that should be established before entering the observation exercise.
Sheal (1989): Classroom observation: training the observers. Describes a three-part workshop on effective observation practices. Emphasis is placed on the importance of structured classroom observation through discussing and establishing a focus pre-observation, observing that specifically, with a structure (i.e. a form) and then discussing what was observed post-observation.
Tsui (2009): Teaching expertise: Approaches, perspectives, and characterizations. Chapter 19 of The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education (Burns & J. C. Richards, Eds.) is review of teaching expertise to determine the approaches, perspectives and characterizations of expert teachers. Experience and expertise are compared.
Ur (2006): Are teachers born or made? A reflection on the qualities good teachers posses. It is suggested"born teachers" have intrinsic qualities that can’t be taught: the “t-factor”, yet even then, training is still required.
Wajnryb (1992): The learner. Chapter 1 of Classroom Observation Tasks explores observation approaches suited to an established observation focus. Techniques, procedures and behaviours to consider in classroom observation are discussed.
Wajnryb (1998): Telling it like it isn't—exploring an instance of pragmatic ambivalence in supervisory discourse. Explores supervisory discourse that is pragmatically ambivalent to avoid threatening teacher face – being purposefully unclear and indirect is a technique often used to navigate face threatening speech acts. Relying heavily on hedging or pragmatic ambivalence can result in misunderstandings in a feedback scenario.
Zepeda & Ponticelli (1998): At cross-purposes: what do teachers need, want, and get from supervision? Explores teachers’ perceptions of supervision and supervisor behaviours that inhibit and support teacher growth. Discusses "best" and "worst" supervisory practices.