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To cite this Article Lopez-Real, Francis and Kwan, Tammy(2005) 'Mentors' perceptions of their own professional
During 20012002 the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong undertook a largescale evaluation of the schooluniversity partnership scheme. As part of this study, all mentors
were asked how, if at all, the mentoring process had enhanced their own professional development.
An open-response questionnaire was administered with a selection of follow-up interviews. About
70% of the mentors claimed that they had benefited professionally from mentoring. Here we
analyse mentors responses and from them propose four constructs that we suggest lead to
professional development, namely: learning through self-reflection, learning from student
teachers, learning through mutual collaboration, and learning from university tutors. Of these,
the first appears to be the most significant.
Introduction
Most of the literature on professional development related to mentoring focuses on
how a mentee benefits by learning from the mentor. However, little research has
considered to what extent mentors themselves benefit professionally from mentoring. Work that has focused on mentoring has tended to concentrate on the
constraints and barriers that mentors have to face in order to become a mentor (e.g.
Hoerner et al., 1991; McCann & Radford, 1993). As a result, there may well be a
tendency to avoid becoming a mentor unless so assigned by a superior such as the
principal.
In order to ensure a healthy sustainability, it is essential to arouse intrinsic drive
among the mentoring teachers so that they feel rewarded in achieving professional
development through the process of mentoring student teachers. Sandholtz and
Merseth (1992) use inducement-contribution theory (after March & Simon, 1958)
to explain and examine teachers experiences during mentoring. They identify the
demands and rewards for these teachers in order to encourage them to participate in
*Corresponding author. Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong
Kong, SAR, China. Email: lopezfj@hkucc.hku.hk
ISSN 0260-7476 (print)/ISSN 1360-0540 (online)/05/010015-10
# 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/02607470500043532
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Questionnaire responses
Of the 259 mentors who responded to the whole questionnaire, 78 of them either left
this question blank or specifically wrote no enhancement. Hence, 181 (that is,
70%) considered that the mentoring process had been of benefit to them in some
way. However, most of the responses were very short; often a single sentence or
phrase. For example: It helped me reflect on my own teaching. This gave us a
broad picture of the ways in which they felt they had benefited, but provided very
little depth. It was for this reason that we felt the need to follow up with further
interviews and this is discussed later.
Nevertheless, from the questionnaire data we were able to identify the most
commonly held perceptions of the mentors and these are summarized in Table 1.
It should be noted that since this was a free-response question, some of the
mentors identified more than one benefit to them. That is, the categories in the table
are not mutually exclusive and therefore the total in the percentage row is greater
than 100%. Also, under the Other category, most of the responses consisted of
comments that were positive in the vaguest terms and gave no specific indication of
precisely how the mentors had benefited. For example, Being a mentor was very
helpful to my professional development.
Despite the reservations mentioned above, Table 1 does provide us with quite a
striking broad-brush picture of mentors perceptions. We investigate these
perceptions in more depth in the following section.
Interview data
As mentioned previously, in order to obtain more substantive data about mentors
perceptions of their professional development arising from the mentoring process
itself, a sample of 18 mentors were selected for interviews. In addition to the criteria
listed earlier, the selection also ensured that the questionnaire comments of the
mentors interviewed covered the four categories listed in Table 1. In all the following
quotations, initials of the participating teachers are shown in brackets.
Learning through self-reflection. As we have seen, this was by far the most common
aspect referred to by the mentors in the questionnaire, with over half of
Table 1. Mentors commonly held perceptions of professional development arising from the
mentoring process
Mentoring benefits in terms of professional development
Learning Learning from Learning through
through
student
mutual
self-reflection
teachers
collaboration
Number of responses
Percentage (n5181)
98
54%
71
39%
32
18%
Learning from
university
tutors
Other
13
7%
26
14%
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It makes you reflect on your own teaching when you know someone is trying to learn
from what you are doing. So you put a lot of effort into the structure and what you are
doing because you want it to be good. You dont want to give someone a bad example of
how to teach. (KKL)
I re-examine my teaching more frequently and wonder why I employ such kind of
teaching approaches. When you have been a teacher for a long time you gradually take
your teaching approaches for granted and have little introspection. However, when you
are required to teach the student teacher how to teach and account for your choice, this
will prompt you to have more introspection. (CW)
Now I have more people to observe me and learn from me, I have to think constantly
what I can offer them. This will raise my level and frequency of reflection. I have to
explain to student teachers why I teach in this way, is it a good way of teaching and
whether they can learn something. (LMF)
As we see from the above, the mentors not only feel compelled to think about how
they teach but also to account for and explain the reasons for their methods. It is this
kind of reflection that lies at the heart of teachers self-development. There was also
evidence that once having embarked on some reflection and analysis of their own
teaching this process continued after the student teacher had finished the practicum,
as we see in the following comment:
Indeed, if I were not engaged in the discussion with the student teacher, I certainly
would not justify consciously the rationale for all my chosen strategies. Perhaps I
am already getting used to this kind of reflection. Although the student teacher has left,
I am from time to time reminding myself to think more before and after each lesson.
That I think is critical and crucial for my own professional development on teaching.
(KKL)
In all the mentors comments such reflections and justifications had clearly come
from their own awareness. This can be made an even more powerful vehicle for
reflection if the observer (in this case the student teacher) can be given clear
guidance on what kinds of issues and questions to raise about the teaching and
learning in a lesson. The fact that this was never mentioned by any mentor suggests
that the university may need to strengthen this aspect of the partnership. Similar
kinds of reflection can also occur when the mentor is observing the student teacher,
as suggested here:
When I see a deficiency or inadequacy in her (the student teacher), I also reflect upon
myself and ask if I am also inadequate in the same things, only to a different degree.
While I congratulate myself for having overcome certain hurdles that she cant, I try to
figure out how I can have succeeded. (NSY)
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I do not just learn when observing the lessons of student teachers. Now it also helps us
to reflect on ourselves after we have observed the lessons of colleagues. Lesson
observation is a valuable activity. We can improve our teaching method as well as our
teaching efficiency. (NSS)
The idea of lesson study had been initiated with some mentors as part of a
mentoring programme run at the university. This involved the collaborative
preparation of a lesson and its subsequent implementation, observation, analysis
and further refinement by a group of teachers working in conjunction with a
university tutor. The process was modelled on the Japanese research lessons
described by Stigler and Hiebert (1999). Clearly, as just described, this process
involves peer observation of teaching as one of its elements. However, the comment
above (and similar comments from others) came from mentors who had not been
involved in that programme. Thus, the subsequent peer observations of the teachers
appear to have arisen spontaneously from their experience of the mentoring process
with the student teachers.
Learning from student teachers. Nearly 40% of the responses from mentors concerned
learning from the student teachers themselves. This may seem somewhat ironic
given that the student teachers are explicitly in a learning situation and the mentors
represent the experienced guides. Nonetheless, many of the mentors talked about
learning directly from the students teaching, from their fresh teaching strategies,
innovative ideas, use of IT, etc. which they found stimulating and which they were
keen to try out in their own classrooms. Some typical comments included:
Through observing their lessons, we learned of new methods and we were refreshed.
Sometimes they had ideas that were new and feasible. They stimulated me and I would
make use of them in the future. I think I have learned from them and I come to realize
that teaching and learning really go hand in glove. We progress together. (WCH)
The greatest benefit is the feeling of freshness. I dont feel that I am superior. When I
observe them, there are things I appreciatetheir ideas. Whether I can execute them in
my own subsequent lessons is another issue. The feeling of novelty is a good one. (HSS)
I think the most significant thing I learned is that they (the student teachers) really
emphasize students participation in class. They would have group discussions in the
lesson. To compare with my own teaching in the past, I didnt use this kind of
technique very often. (MC)
I found the student teachers worked very hard to use creative methods to start a topic. I
think this has had an impact on me. (My own approach) is quite boring really. (WKF)
This kind of direct impact was not always restricted to the particular mentor
observing a lesson, as the following comment from a Subject Panel Chair (similar to
a Department Head) makes clear:
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Sometimes we (the teachers) have meetings and, after observing the student teachers
lessons, I will share their good ideas with other teachers, or invite them to observe that
student teacher. I can ask the other teachers to try to follow that practice. (NSS)
Learning from mutual collaboration. This category refers to the mutual collaboration
between mentors and student teachers and therefore could almost be considered as a
sub-category of the previous one. However, there were so many comments that
emphasized this aspect of learning from each other that we felt it warranted a separate
category. In the previous section it is clear that the emphasis was on the direct
acquisition, by the mentors from the student teachers, of new teaching strategies and
approaches that could be useful to the mentor. In contrast, the comments in this
category centred around notions of sharing and working together for mutual benefit.
Such comments illustrate the notion of mentor as equal partner described by
Hopper (2001).
I have gained experience in developing collaborative structures and supportive
relationships with student teachers. Follow-up discussions after lesson observations
have led us to share each others views about students learning styles and learning
problems and how to improve student learning. (SKL)
The student teacher and I can learn together and give support to each other. We are
stimulating each others thoughts during our discussions. (SKW)
When we were discussing or investigating a particular topic together it gave us both a
deeper understanding of that topic. (KPS)
Moreover, as we have seen before, this sharing and learning together can spill over
into the teachers subsequent behaviour after the student teachers practice is over.
For example:
Teaching quality can be enhanced through our interactions and learning from each
other. I am now more ready to share teaching experiences and skills with my own
colleagues. (CW)
In the above case a very specific piece of advice is referred to. However, the mentor
may be taking on board the university tutors advice in a broader sense. The kind of
teaching and learning strategies, and indeed the underlying teaching philosophy, that
a university tutor may be trying to convey to his/her student teacher is very likely to
have an effect on the mentor too. As this mentor puts it:
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To be realistic, I can say the university tutors indeed do teach me about the teaching
methods, teaching strategies, teaching aids. However, I think the most important thing
that I learn from them is the philosophy of being a teacher. To be creative in terms of
making use of different teaching resources and materials. To be adaptive in terms of
changing your teaching strategies in facing different classes. To be conscientious and
not blaming your students for failure. (KKL)
However, when the mentors were asked to think about specific elements, such as
tripartite conferences (i.e. a three-way discussion between a mentor, student teacher
and university tutor) or programmes run especially for mentors at the university
(such as lesson study), they tended to be more forthcoming. In general they referred
to benefits in terms of the shared interactions with the university tutor and the
exchange of ideas and teaching suggestions. They also indicated that the university
tutor served as a model for them in the supervisory conferences and they could learn
conferencing techniques from them. In addition there was the perception that their
own ideas and suggestions could be validated by the university tutor and this was
reassuring for them. For example:
We then made good use of the recess time to hold a tripartite meeting. He (the
university tutor) invited me to sit in the feedback session that he did with the student
teacher. I feel that I have learned something. There were things which I missed out
when I was observing the lesson. I feel that communication technique is an area I have
to master. How to observe a lesson is important. Also important is what words to use to
lead a discussion. In short, the speaking skills. (PCC)
Once the university tutor came and he invited me to attend the post-observation
conference. I thought it was a very good opportunity for me to find out how different we
were in our perspectives in conducting the observations. I was delighted. The student
teacher was open and produced the comment sheet written by the university tutor.
When I compared mine with his, I found that there were many comments which were in
common. I found it a good opportunity to learn. (CW)
Although what the mentors are learning here appears to relate more to conferencing
skills, it may well have an indirect effect on their professional development as
teachers in that it helps them to focus on aspects of a lesson they might otherwise not
consider. This in turn can lead to them considering the same aspects when reflecting
on their own teaching.
Conclusion
From a purely quantitative perspective, the data reported in this study clearly
indicate that the majority of mentors (about 70%) do feel that their own professional
development has been enhanced through having participated in mentoring student
teachers. From the questionnaire responses, and the follow-up interviews, we are
able to identify two broad areas, as perceived by the mentors, through which this
professional development occurs. The first is through self-reflection and this in turn
appears to come about via two avenues. Because many of the mentors perceive
themselves to be in the position of role model and advisor, they feel compelled to
examine their own teaching approaches, techniques, attitudes, etc. in greater depth
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The research leading to this paper was made possible by Grant No. 1020320212882-10000-324-01 from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong. The
authors would like to acknowledge Mary Che, the Research Officer who took care of
the conduct of questionnaire and interviews for this study.
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