For New Teachers
From Flinders University, Australia:
Teaching should:
- focus on desired learning outcomes for students, in the form of knowledge, understanding, skill and attitudes;
- assist students to form broad conceptual understandings while gaining depth of knowledge;
- encourage the informed and critical questioning of accepted theories and views;
- develop an awareness of the limited and provisional nature of much of current knowledge in all fields;
- see how understanding evolves and is subject to challenge and revision;
- engage students as active participants in the learning process, while acknowledging that all learning must involve a complex interplay of active and receptive processes;
- engage students in discussion of ways in which study tasks can be undertaken;
- respect students' right to express views and opinions;
- incorporate a concern for the welfare and progress of individual students;
- proceed from an understanding of students knowledge, capabilities and backgrounds;
- encompass a range of perspectives from groups of different ethic background,socio-economic status and sex;
- acknowledge and attempt to meet the demands of students with disabilities;
- encourage and awareness of the ethical dimensions of problems and issues;
- utilize instructional strategies and tools to enable many different styles of learning and;
- adopt assessment methods and tasks appropriate to the desired learning outcomes of the course and topic and to the capabilities of the student
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For Mentors
- Use your own experiences to assist your mentee in developing strategies that work for him/her
- Model various strategies for your mentee
- Ask other teachers who use unique and effective teaching techniques to allow your mentee to observe their classes
- Discuss benefits and pitfalls of various teaching strategies with your mentee
- Building trust and understanding is a key step in establishing professional relationships with classroom teachers. Mentors can begin by explaining their role and acknowledging the mentee's effort and commitment. New teachers will seek assistance if they feel safe, know that their feelings and experiences are valued, and trust that their actions are not being judged.
- When mentor teachers engage in professional conversations with classroom teachers, appropriate language is essential. Language should be constructive and encouraging (Here’s another way of doing this...), not critical and demanding (You’re doing it wrong!). Effective approaches include asking questions (Can you share how you teach reading?); paraphrasing (So you’re saying that teaching vocabulary is challenging?); and providing specific feedback (Teaching new vocabulary words before students read unfamiliar texts can boost their comprehension).
- Mentor teachers must remember that they have more background knowledge in the content area. They will need to clarify unfamiliar concepts and vocabulary and provide examples in familiar contexts so that the new teacher can easily understand and quickly integrate new knowledge or strategies.
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For School Administrators
- Keep up on new trends in effective teaching strategies
- Provide new teachers with the flexibility to observe other teachers in your school
- Provide common planning time for mentor/mentee teams
- If practical, allow mentor/mentee groups to team teach
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