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Gulcin Cosgun: Mentoring the Experienced a Rare but Tasty Treat
- 1. Mentoring the experienced: a
rare but tasty treat
Gulcin Cosgun – Özyeğin University, İstanbul, Turkey
Prof. Derin Atay – Bahçeşehir University, İstanbul, Turkey
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- 2. Mentoring...
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(Anderson & Shannon, 1988, p.29).
Digital image taken from pinterest.com
“a nurturing process in which a more experienced person, serving as a role
model, teaches, sponsors, encourages, counsels and befriends a less
experienced person for the purpose of promoting the latter’s professional
and/or personal development”
- 3. Image taken from https://magoosh.com/praxis/magoosh-comics-things-you-learn-in-your-first-year-of-teaching/
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- 4. Mentoring programs for
experienced teachers are rare.
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the number of
years in
teaching
profession
automatic
development of
the expertise of
teachers
- 5. Even if teachers are experienced, lack of
support from administration and
colleagues is cited as a factor in
experienced teacher attrition.
(Kersaint et al., 2007; Tye & O’Brien, 2002).
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- 6. It’s because...
when experienced teachers start working in a new
school system, they share similar needs with the
beginning teachers:
• discovering available resources,
• learning the procedures of the new school,
• getting used to the new student profile
• adjusting to curricular differences
(Boreen, Niday & Johnson, 2003, p.109)
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- 7. A model implemented with
experienced teachers in Turkey
What are the perceived impacts of a mentoring
program on experienced Turkish EFL teachers at
tertiary level?
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- 8. SETTING
An English preparatory school in an English-medium
university in Turkey
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- 9. Mentoring program at the
school
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• has been offered since the fourth year of the school.
• is mandatory.
• is designed for experienced teachers who are new to the
institution but not to the profession.
• is a one-year program.
• is run by mentors who also work as instructors at the
school.
• aims to ensure a smooth beginning to the year and
maintaining the standards of teaching and learning high,
which also indirectly contributes to the mentees’
professional development.
- 10. Mentoring program at the
school
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• includes different components which are social activities,
observations, individual meetings with mentors and idea
sharing sessions.
• allows the mentors to use differentiated methods considering
the needs of mentees rather than imposing a pre-planned rigid
program for all since the aim is the same: to develop teachers’
competencies systematically.
• involves a formative and summative evaluation to evaluate the
effectiveness of the components and take actions.
- 11. PARTICIPANTS
12 teachers
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Table. Demographic information of thementees
Gender Nationality Education Years of Lang.
Teaching Exp
TEFL Certificate Age
F % F % F % F % F % F %
F
M
10
2
83.3
16.7
Turkish
Others
10
2
83.3
16.7
BA
MA
6
6
50
50
3-5
6-8
Over
8
5
3
4
41.7
25
33.3
None
Holds
a
certific
ate
7
5
58.3
41.7
27-29
30-32
33-35
5
4
3
41.7
33.3
25
- 12. RESEARCH DESIGN AND
DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
• A phenomenological approach
• Semi-structured interviews
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- 13. DATA ANALYSIS
• Through inductive content analysis (Miles &
Huberman, 1994): identifying the central themes
capturing the main ideas regarding the research
question
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- 14. FINDINGS
Two central themes emerged from the analysis:
- mentoring as a way of professional development
- mentoring as a way of personal development
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- 15. 1. Mentoring as a way of
professional development
Teachers reported that the mentoring program:
- gave them necessary input and helped them to
become aware of their practices,
- enabled them reflect on the effectiveness of
their practices and change them in order to
cater for the needs of the students in the new
school culture
- improved their knowledge
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- 16. • “...there is a great feedback system here. Observation cycle is
quite planned and systematic. So, I am very happy and I feel
that I am reflecting on things and I improve my lessons as well.
I can see the improvements.” (Participant D)
• “I had observations before but I cannot say that I got really
proper feedback on my performance. Now especially after the
observation feedback here I can say that it will work a lot
because I have really gained awareness...” (Participant E)
• “Actually the post discussion meeting was perfect. I learned
many things to improve my teaching and I really appreciate that
because we are all in the stage of learning and we will continue
though we are experienced…” (Participant H).
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- 17. Teachers reported that the program had
positive impacts of on their teaching
practices on different areas:
echoing, effective planning, vocabulary
teaching, checking comprehension and
making smoother transitions between
activities
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- 18. • “Definitely it (the mentoring program) changed my teaching practices. I try to stop
myself from echoing. This is the biggest thing I pay attention to ... Another
problem in my teaching was staging. I received that feedback that the activities
could have been staged in a better way. Now, I try to plan my lessons in a better
way for that reason.” (participant J)
• “I changed the way I teach vocabulary after the observation... I received the
feedback that I need to check learning after teaching the vocab items... Now, I ask
concept-checking questions to ensure full comprehension.” (Participant C)
• “…I changed a lot of things. For instance, I started asking for justification for the
comprehension questions in my reading lessons. And I realize that students learn
better in that way…” (Participant H)
• “…I think I learn from it. After feedback I already started correcting some things. I
now pay more attention to thematic content in my lessons. I also try to make
smooth transitions between the stages in my lessons.” (Participant G)
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- 19. 2.Mentoring as a way of
personal development
A positive impact on the self-confidence
was reported by all the teachers by
• helping teachers to become more
familiar with the context
• enabling them feel more comfortable
since they know what to do and how to
do in case of problems.
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- 20. • “Now I am aware of all the parts of the
assessment here so now I feel myself more
confident than the beginning. And now I am
much more familiar than before…”
(Participant C)
• “I now that there might be some problems
but I am now confident and I know what to
do, how to do for those problems.”
(Participant B)
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- 21. Factors boosting
teachers’ confidence
Three factors creating a positive
impact on teachers’ confidence were
identified during the data analysis:
- reduced stress
- development in skills and
competence
- opportunities for learning about the
school system and culture.
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- 22. Reduced stress
due to nature of the relationships between
the mentors and the mentees:
Three of the participants (25%) stated that
the mentors were very helpful.
Five of the teachers (41.66%) reported that
mentors behaved in a very friendly manner
rather than patronizing, criticizing or being
offensive and didactic.
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- 23. Opportunities for learning
and developing skills
Once teachers realized that they improved
their knowledge and teaching practices,
they felt more confident in what they were
doing:
“I’ve realized many things about myself
that I didn’t know before. So, having
learned about such things, having
discovered myself, I feel enthusiastic. I
feel confident” (Participant J).
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- 24. Opportunities for learning
about the school system
and culture
When teachers learnt more about the school
system and culture, they felt more comfortable:
“I feel more confident because I am accustomed
to the system. I feel I’ve been working here for
ages and now I am more confident and happier.
At the very beginning it was a bit stressful
because there were lots of things to consider.
After the mid module now I am confident …”
(Participant D).
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- 25. IMPLICATIONS
Institutions should:
• provide opportinities for experienced teachers for ongoing professional
development and improvement of practice thorugh a facilitated mentoring
program.
• make sure that mentees have a say in their development and guide them in
this process in a systematic way through planning it with their mentees.
• choose mentors who have the necessary competence and skills to conduct
a relationship fostering mutual trust and increased intimacy as well as to
fulfill the psychosocial functions including guiding, confirmation, and
counseling.
• help teachers own the process rather than causing them to feel that it is for
the benefit of the institution.
• create opportunities for mentees to reflect on events and learn from their
past successes and failures through follow-up actions.
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- 26. REFERENCES
• Anderson, E. M. & Shannon, A. L. (1988). Towards a
conceptualization of mentoring. Journal of Teacher Education,
38-42.
• Boreen, J., Niday, D. & Johnson, M. K. (2003). Mentoring cross
boundaries: Helping beginning teachers succeed in
challenging situations. The USA: Stenhouse Publishers.
• Kersaint, G., Lewis, J., Potter, R., & Meisels, G. (2007). Why
teachers leave: Factors that influence retention and
resignation. Teaching And Teacher Education: An International
Journal Of Research And Studies, 23(6), 775-794.
• Miles, M.B. & Huberman, A.M. (1994) An expanded sourcebook.
Qualitative data analysis. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication.
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