Professional Documents
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benefits beginning
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R&D
ERIC D. HOCHBERG is senior researcher, TERC, Cambridge, Mass. LAURA M. DESIMONE and ANDREW C. PORTER
are professors of education, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, Philadelphia, Pa. MORGAN S.
POLIKOFF is an assistant professor, University of Southern California Rossier School of Education, Los Angeles, Calif.
ROBERT SCHWARTZ is a research assistant, Frontier 21 Educational Solutions, Bala Cynwyd, Pa. L. JOY JOHNSON is a
doctoral student and graduate student research assistant, University of Michigan School of Education, Ann Arbor, Mich.
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Formal and informal mentors look similar on paper. Previous research suggests that for mentors to
be effective, they should have a number of important
characteristics. These include having expertise in the
mentees content area, being familiar with the school
and its students, being located in the same school as
the new teacher, and having time to meet with the
mentee teacher during the school day. We found that
formal and informal mentors were similar in both
their location relative to the teacher and their availability. (Most teachers had a formal and an informal
mentor in the same school and with time to meet
during the school day.) However, formal mentors
were more likely to have math teaching experience,
which research indicates may be especially important
in supporting beginning math teachers.
Formal and informal mentors tend to complement, rather than compensate for, one another.
Teachers generally spent more time with informal
mentors than with formal ones, but formal and informal mentoring occurred around similar topics, and
the way time was distributed was roughly equivalent
across both formal and informal mentors. About half
of teachers mentoring addressed issues pertaining
directly to instructional content and activities like
analyzing students math work and planning and pacing instruction with the remainder divided among
topics like behavior management, administrative expectations, relationships with parents, and the provision of emotional support. In addition, teachers
impressions of the quality of their mentors, including
their knowledge of teaching and of mathematics and
their skill as a mentor, did not suggest that teachers
found formal mentors to be any more or less effective than informal ones. In actuality, teachers tended
to regard both formal and informal mentors and the
mentoring they provided quite positively, appreciating almost any support, regardless of its source.
Formal mentoring is more systematic, whereas
informal mentoring is more in the moment. One
major difference between formal and informal mentoring concerns the opportunity for teachers to be
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Formal
mentoring
is more
systematic,
whereas
informal
mentoring is
more in the
moment.
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coordinator need not be a separate position; a principal, instructional coach, or teacher leader might
assume this role (Desimone et al., 2014).
Make formal mentoring about improving instruction. Formal mentors, particularly when trained
specifically for the role and recruited based on their
effectiveness as teachers, are apt to provide meaningful feedback on teachers instruction. However,
their ability to do so depends on having sufficient
time to observe teachers as they teach and to engage
with teachers about these observations. Focusing on
instruction does not necessarily mean that formal
mentors couldnt also be a shoulder to cry on
a common conceptualization of the mentors role;
however, making the provision of personal or emotional support the formal mentors primary objective
may interfere with efforts to improve teachers skills
and confidence related to their teaching.
Give teachers time to interact. Apart from time for
structured activities with formal mentors ideally
including an expectation of observation of and feedback on instruction teachers need time for personal interactions and collaboration with colleagues.
Successfully integrating formal and informal mentoring will depend on having structures in place to
provide common time for mentoring interactions to
occur during the school day.
K
References
Desimone, L.M., Hochberg, E.D., Porter, A.C., Polikoff, M.S.,
Schwartz, R., & Johnson, L.J. (2014). Formal and informal
mentoring: Complementary, compensatory, or consistent?
Journal of Teacher Education, 65 (2), 88-110.
Desimone, L.M., Porter, A.C., Garet, M., Yoon, K., & Birman,
B. (2002). Effects of professional development on teachers
instruction: Results from a three-year study. Educational
Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24 (2), 81-112.
Garet, M., Porter, A., Desimone, L., Birman, B., & Yoon, K.
(2001). What makes professional development effective?
Analysis of a national sample of teachers. American
Educational Research Journal, 38 (4), 915-945.
Hobson, A.J., Ashby, P., Malderez, A., & Tomlinson, P.D.
(2009). Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and
what we dont. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25 (1), 207216.
Ingersoll, R.M. & Strong, M. (2011). The impact of induction
and mentoring programs for beginning teachers: A critical
review of the research. Review of Educational Research, 81
(2), 201-233.
Smith, T.M. & Ingersoll, R.M. (2004). What are the effects
of induction and mentoring on beginning teacher turnover?
American Educational Research Journal, 41 (3), 681-714.
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