Mentors mainly provide beginning teachers with emotional support
28 June 2010
It is not easy for beginning teachers to stand in front of the class for the first time. Therefore they are increasingly receiving support from mentors. The mentors provide a lot of emotional support, but the coaching has less effect on professional development, concludes Dutch researcher Chantal Kessels.
Kessels investigated to what extent coaching programmes contributed to the well-being of beginning teachers and to their professional development. She first of all interviewed a limited group of mentors and teachers at 12 different high schools. After that she did a large-scale questionnaire study. She discovered that the emphasis in coaching programmes is often on the emotional support. On top of this teachers receive advice about managing the class. A possible explanation for this is that the majority of mentors are strongly focused on the everyday immediate concerns and problems of the teacher and want to help them with these straightaway.
Greater professionality
Kessels' research clearly shows that the majority of teachers feel that the coaching has little bearing on their professional development. The researcher advises a more structured approach to the coaching and that mentors should be selected more on their ability to challenge teachers in their professional development. This would, however, require an investment in the preparation and training of the mentors. The inclusion of assessment procedures in the programme is also recommended, as this would put the mentors in a better position to support the teachers in their professional development. Thirdly, Kessels advises giving the professional development of teachers a more central role in schools than is often the case at present, preferably in collaboration with teacher training courses.
Chantal Kessels gained her doctorate from Leiden University for her thesis entitled The influence of induction programs on beginning teachers' well-being and professional development. Her supervisors were Prof. D. Beijaard and Prof. N. Verloop. The research was funded by the Dutch Programme Council for Educational Research, part of NWO.
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