This research explored how a community of practice could be supported to work in a democratic way to understand what good practice and professional development of new teachers through mentoring and the ‘supervision’ of mentoring could look like in this context.
A project which aimed to explore and develop an educational supervisory model for mentors in ITT. Using an Action Research approach, It looked at the concepts in the literature and drew on the experience of several different models of mentoring/coaching in use.
The findings of this small scale research project suggested that both mentors and ‘supervisors’ value the collaborative and collegiate approaches to supporting them in the development of their practice. The research findings tentatively suggested that reflective conversations within peer groups or facilitated by a leader or ‘supervisor’ using a Community of Enquiry approach, could not only develop the professional identity of new and existing teachers who act as mentors, but can also contribute to organisational cultures that might constitute and support good practice in teaching and learning. Data was gathered from observation of practice, document analysis, and interviews/surveys.
LSIS/IfL Research Fellowship