An Insider's Research on Mentoring

My philosophy for preparing student teachers is, "You cannot learn to teach without teaching." So as soon as possible, I let each student teacher teach the class. When student teachers experienced problems, we worked together to solve them. I often felt frustrated: I don't agree with what she's doing with my children. I want my class back. I would ask myself questions: Am I doing this right? What could I be doing better? I wanted to improve my mentoring. So I began an action research project to improve it. By action research, I mean insider research, research that is meaningful to my classroom situation. As an action researcher, I identify concerns, conduct research, refine suggestions, and reflect upon them.

First, I read research done by others. Surfing the Internet, I found a reading list from a course for supervising teachers. I went to Midwest U.'s library and found some articles on the list. As I read through them, I noticed that several innovations repeated themselves. Among these were the use of technology (computers, video cameras, and tape recorders); professional development schools; and reflective journals. Using the computer would be great, and we could try taping, both on audio and video. Midwest University has a professional development school for training student teachers, but my school was not part of it. Maintaining reflective journals and recording seemed the place to start.

Beatie (1995) suggests that "when student teachers and cooperating teachers can engage in inquiry and reflection necessary to challenge their practices and change the stereotypes of teaching and learning that currently exist, they can overcome ‘obstacles to reform'" (p. 53). Gipe and Richards (1992) say that "supervisors should urge prospective teachers to think reflectively about their work . . . and to keep journals" (p. 52). They say that research supports the value of a journal as a vehicle to promote and document reflective thinking. Although reflection does not necessarily improve teaching, there is evidence that student teachers who participate in reflective teaching programs rather than traditional programs are "less anxious about teaching, and they are more able to think and talk about teaching and learning" (p. 53). So I accepted reflection as a valuable part of the student teaching experience and decided that both my student teacher and I ought to be doing more of it.

Maintaining Reflective Journals

I began to keep a daily journal of classroom events and observations of Miss Smith, an eight-week student teacher. What is the best way to be a good observer? Barker and Desrochers (1992) suggest several techniques: recording interactions with students, recording levels of questioning, recording movement patterns of the teacher, and using script taping. While observing Miss Smith, I used a seating chart to record her oral interaction with students. To record levels of questioning, I used Bloom's Taxonomy. This list encourages teachers to ask both literal-recall questions of direct knowledge and those of the higher orders of thinking, such as analysis, comparison, and evaluation. I used script taping, an actual written account of a lesson, and recorded interaction between the students and the teacher. These observations helped me collect data, which helped me communicate more effectively with Miss Smith.

I immediately noticed the children responding well to the various activities she planned. On February 25, Miss Smith wrote in her journal,

They really liked reading along with me as I read the story Down By the Bay to them. I chose to make a mural together about the book, rather than following our original idea of having them draw pictures individually. The kids thought about the story song more and about the silly rhymes that could work as a result of making the mural.

She was right; the children loved the book so much that they continued to choose that story to read at free reading.

On February 28, I wrote in my journal,

As I thought about today, I realized that Miss Smith had not actually taught anything at all. She merely gave out and explained worksheets. Is this the example I gave her?

More than just describe and observe her lessons, I was beginning to reflect: Had I modeled these lessons?

Modeling Effective Instruction

One suggestion in the supervising guidelines is to model for your student teacher. Daniel Martin (1997) writes, after 18 months of research on mentoring preservice teachers,

Teaching is shaped according to the models of cooperating teachers. As student teachers borrow routines they are not merely mimicking, but rather making an attempt to research into one's own pedagogy the fit between the routine and how one wished to teach. (p. 193)

I thought I had modeled lessons. Obviously the modeling step needed more direction. Barker and Desrochers (1992) advise, "After the student teacher observes...teaching techniques, explain what was done as well as why it was done" (p. 23). They also suggest that copying the teacher "provides a smoother transition and should be followed with originality and experimentation in teaching" (p. 24). I had missed the copying step and had expected the originality.

I questioned other cooperating teachers to see how they began coaching student teachers. I discovered that one teacher used a lesson plan format and followed up with discussion. The student observed the teacher. Then, the two of them discussed the lesson together, talking about the parts of a good lesson: What did you think of the opening? Could you state the objectives? Which of the activities were the most successful? Did you notice the way the lesson was closed? My colleague felt that discussion led to the natural steps of critiquing. Observing me allowed Miss Smith to think about a lesson without the pressures of performance. Miss Jones, another student teacher, said, "I think being able to observe someone teaching each subject before I teach it will be a great asset. It'll give me a chance to see how each subject is handled."

As I talked to colleagues about my project, I uncovered typical problems at all grade levels. Several teachers said that the students didn't know how to teach reading. Their lesson plans weren't complete. They didn't know how to include all components of a lesson—from introduction to closure. These statements mirrored my own ideas. When I asked other mentor teachers how they handled lessons plans, I received several worthy suggestions. One was to write the plan and have the student teacher teach from it, another version of modeling. Another teacher said,

Talk to the university supervisor about requiring the student teachers to use a specific format for writing lessons. Every supervisor does not require the same format and this makes it hard to know what preparation the students have had.

Anna K. Schriever is a kindergarten teacher. She may be reached at 326 E. Union St., Liberty, IN 47353 (e-mail: schreve1@si-net.com).