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NCRTL explores learning from mentors: a study update

The National Center for Research on Teacher Learning (NCRTL) is completing its fifth year of a five-year grant from from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, for the study of teacher learning.

Mentoring by experienced teachers is a critical topic in education today and a favored strategy in U.S. policy initiatives focused on teacher induction. In addition to creating new incentives and career opportunities for experienced teachers, assigning mentors to work with beginning teachers represents an improvement over the abrupt and unassisted entry into teaching that characterizes the experiences of many beginning teachers. But the promise of mentoring goes beyond helping novices survive their first year of teaching. Teacher mentoring can also be a way of promoting new approaches to teaching and learning and new forms of teacher collaboration. If mentoring is going to function as a strategy for reforming teaching and teacher education, it must be linked to a vision of good teaching and guided by an understanding of how novices learn such teaching.

The project

Learning from Mentors, one of nine current studies at the National Center for Research on Teacher Learning (NCRTL), focuses on mentoring practices and the contributions of mentor teachers to novice teachers' learning to teach. Led by NCRTL senior researcher Sharon Feiman-Nemser, the study examines mentoring in three contexts - the United States, the United Kingdom, and China - and asks what mentors do, what novices learn, and how mentors' practices and novices' learning are shaped by different institutional, social, and cultural contexts.

Data has been collected in six research sites Oxford, England; Philadelphia, PA; Albuquerque, NM; Lansing and Holt, MI; and Shanghai, China. Types of data gathered include: logs of mentor/novice interactions over time, which are designed to give a general picture of mentoring in each site; log/reflection interviews, which allow novices and mentors to elaborate on particular entries in their logs about their learning and their work together; observations of and interviews about novices' teaching, which reveal changes in novices' thinking and practice; observations of and interviews about mentors' teaching, which reveal the kind of teaching mentors model for novices; and observations of and interviews about formal interactions, which reveal how mentors and novices talk and think about teaching and learning to teach. In addition, videotapes of novices teaching and extended conversations between novices and mentors about teaching were recorded in every site.

Data analysis is ongoing. Researchers are constructing descriptions of different forms of mentoring and analyzing the kinds of learning that these forms enable. They are also probing mentors' theories of mentoring and learning to teach as articulated and expressed in their work with novices.

A videotape of mentored learning to teach in China, England and the U.S. will be produced to show how thoughtful mentors in different contexts define their responsibilities and work with novices. Case studies of mentoring are being prepared, as well as a collection of writings by mentors on mentoring.

Initial findings and implications

Initial findings and implications from the Learning from Mentors study center on what mentoring is like in different contexts and what reform-oriented mentoring entails. While analysis is not complete, several important issues about mentoring are becoming evident:

• For mentoring to contribute to educational reform, it must be connected to a vision of good teaching. Although mentor teacher programs are part of the current reform agenda in the U.S., mentor teachers do not automatically serve as a force for change. Their ability to do this depends on the kind of teaching they promote and the kinds of professional norms they encourage.
• For mentoring to be effective, it must be informed by an understanding of learning to teach. An understanding of learning to teach includes a conception of what novices need to learn and how that learning occurs over time in the context of teaching. Mentors need such an understanding to create appropriate learning opportunities for novices, especially if they want to help novices learn new kinds of teaching.
• Mentoring is more than a social role; it is also a professional practice. Mentoring is usually defined as a new social role for experienced teachers. But role definitions do not help mentors visualize what they are supposed to do. More helpful are clear statements of purpose linked to descriptions of specific mentoring practices in context.
• Mentors need time to mentor and opportunities to learn to mentor. While the time available for mentoring affects the quality of mentoring, mentors still need opportunities to develop their practice as mentors, especially if they are going to serve as agents of change. In particular, mentor teachers need opportunities to (1) critically examine their beliefs about teaching and learning to teach; (2) connect their practice as mentors to novices' learning; and (3) discuss dilemmas and problems that arise in the course of helping novices learn to teach. These opportunities can contribute to a "culture of mentoring" in which teachers work together to improve their teaching.
• The professional culture of the school and broader national policies and values affect what mentors do and what novices learn. Cross-cultural comparisons reveal how multiple contexts shape what mentors do and what novices learn. For example, the idea that mentors should help novices "find their own style" is more prevalent in the U.S. and England than it is in China, while the idea that mentors are experts is more acceptable in China than in the U.S. and Britain. In their interactions with novices, Chinese mentors tend to focus more on pedagogy and less on content because the national curriculum determines what teachers should teach. By contrast, reform-oriented mentors in the U.S. spend considerable time helping novices learn to develop curriculum. These findings suggest that in introducing or changing programs of mentoring we need to take into account broader contexts.