Mentoring

In this module, we will focus on the basic skills of mentoring, including using the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, annotating evidence and developing relationships and protocols to use when observing colleagues. You will create an annotated portfolio of evidence that constitutes an audit of your own skills in mentoring as you develop throughout the module.

At the end of the module, you will be asked to bring your draft portfolio entries to discuss and reflect on with others during the workshop. You are expected to complete entries progressively during the course. As this work is equivalent to master's level study, you will be expected to use American Psychology Association (APA) referencing throughout the portfolio entries when analysing readings. The portfolio will be due two weeks after the final session of the module.

Required commitment (for 20 hours of professional learning):

• Attend all face-to-face workshop sessions.
• Establish a mentoring relationship with a preservice teacher or in-service teacher at your school (or another school where there is an existing partnership as long as regular observations and debriefing sessions can be accommodated). This must be the same mentee across the whole mentoring period (an early-career, new scheme or experienced teacher/colleague).
• Negotiate regular observation of classroom teaching practice and record observations using an agreed observation sheet. You will need to observe a minimum of 5 x 50–60 minute lessons.
• Further analyse observations, annotate against Professional Teaching Standards, and engage in feedback discussions with the mentee.
• Complete an ongoing professional portfolio (3000 words) that includes the annotated observation documents, reflection about mentoring practice and links to associated readings.

Professional portfolio of evidence requirements:

• Profile of mentee (100 words)
• 5 x coded observation sheets (using AITSL standards)
• 5 x critical analyses/journal entries linking the readings and the standards to practice (each one less than 450 words)
• Critical feedback for your mentee (450 words)
• Self-evaluation statement (200 words)
• Mentee response: open-ended, may be completed each week or after the final observation (no word limit).

If you are supporting both preservice and in-service teachers, this module will build on the mentoring skills developed in Module 1. We will introduce you to the principles of practitioner inquiry as a means to develop your mentoring practice. You will be supported to develop a focus for your inquiry through critical reflection on conversations for mentoring, as well as evaluation of the effectiveness of teacher professional learning activities to address students’ learning needs. This module addresses the content associated with Standard 6 of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, ‘Engage in professional learning’.

At various points in the module, you will be asked to bring your drafts of components of an inquiry report to discuss and reflect on with peers during the workshops. You are expected to complete entries progressively throughout the course that will lead to a final report. As this work is equivalent to master's level study, you will be expected to use American Psychology Association (APA) referencing throughout the portfolio entries when analysing readings. The portfolio will be due two weeks after the final session of the module.

Required commitment (for 20 hours of professional learning):

• Attend all face-to-face workshop sessions.
• Establish a mentoring relationship with a preservice teacher or in-service teacher at your school (or another school where an existing partnership exists as long as regular observations and debriefing sessions can be accommodated). This should be the same mentee across the whole mentoring period (an early-career, new scheme or experienced teacher/colleague).
• Negotiate regular mentoring activity in line with the identified inquiry focus.
• Further analyse mentoring conversations and observations, and annotate these against Professional Teaching Standards, then engage in feedback discussions with the mentee.
• Complete an ongoing inquiry report (3000 words) that documents the mentoring inquiry process related to the identified focus.

Requirements of the inquiry report (3000 words):

• Introduction (yourself, your situation, the participants, your mentoring action inquiry topic and the reasons for choosing it).
• An account of what happened in each cycle of mentoring action. 
• Critical analysis/reflection on the issues encountered. 
• Conclusion (what you learned, your recommendations for change, suggestions for further mentoring action inquiry).