ACUMentoring

National Mentoring in Education Hub

Mentoring Pre-service Teachers

Professor Tania Aspland

Executive Dean Faculty of Education and Arts
President of the Australian Council of Deans of Education

Welcome to ACUMentoring
ACU has a long history of commitment to truth, academic
excellence and service, these values are the principles behind
all our actions. Our courses not only prepare students to be
knowledgeable and skilful in their discipline area but also
to make ethical decisions, demonstrating respect for the
individual and responsibility for the common good. In line
with these principles and values, ACU has a commitment to the
ongoing development of quality teachers and the educational
community that serves these.

This first accreditation program is specifically designed for

practicing educators involved in pre-service teacher education.

The Faculty of Education and Arts aims to extend the arm

of teacher education into the profession through the ACU
National Mentoring in Education Hub (ACUMentoring). The
initiative responds to community and education sector
needs and offers a range of opportunities for educators to
engage with professional learning. It includes professional
development programs and a range of pathways into formal
study exploring mentoring for teachers, school or early
learning centre leaders across career stages.

In this collaborative approach to teacher education, we bring

expertise together, as university and workplace mentors,
committed to the development of high calibre graduates.

This professional development program focusses on the

enhancement of participants knowledge, qualities and
capacities in mentoring pre-service teachers.
Universities cannot produce the expertise of pre-service
teachers alone. This has to occur through engagement with
professionals in the field who have expert knowledge.

Professor Tania Aspland

Mentoring accreditation programs will equip educators to

meet the mentoring needs of pre-service practicing teachers,
early career teachers, experienced teachers, school or centre
leaders.

MENTORING IS A GROUP OF PEOPLE WORKING AS A COMMUNITY TO DEVELOP TEACHER

POTENTIAL TO ACHIEVE THE STANDARDS AND TO ENSURE THAT THE GRADUATES MOVE INTO A
COMMUNITY WHERE THEY FEEL SAFE SECURE AND EXPERTS AT THEIR OWN LEVEL.
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Why mentoring?
This ACUMentoring professional development program
focuses on developing mentor teachers who can enhance the
skills and confidence of pre-service teachers and empower
them to make decisions that can make a difference. Mentoring
offers an alternative to supervision practices. In a mentoring
relationship, the experienced teacher fosters a collegial
relationship where the pre-service teacher grows in
self-awareness and confidence.

Mentoring is defined as an approach to support teacher

development within a socially and professionally complex
environment. Mentoring is a way of working, embedded
informally in our daily operations in the support and guidance
we provide to colleagues. It can also be a formal relationship
established in educational settings through developmental
mentoring programs that target specific knowledge and skills
to transform practices. Mentoring sits within a suite of strategic
approaches to improve schools or early learning centres and
enhance teacher quality.

Our Approach - The ACU Dierentiated Mentoring Framework

Teachers work is essentially about relating to children
or students however mentoring involves a shift in the
dynamics of the learning relationship to support peer to peer
interactions and adult learning. When working with
pre-service teachers or with peers, teachers need a framework
for the mentoring relationship that provides structure and
purpose. The ACUMentoring Framework underpinning this
mentoring accreditation program provides a clear structure
so that mentors and mentees can engage with meaningful
change; enhance adaptive expertise and professional learning.
The framework integrates the key components of effective
mentoring in a series of nested commitments, which include:
the mentoring relationship, developmental, contextual
influences, and the need for intellectual engagement within
communities of practice. The framework is guided by an
overall commitment to the essential values of our Catholic
Identity and Mission.

In this professional development program the roles and skills

for effective mentoring will be explored against the backdrop
of the domains of teaching as identified by State and National
Institutes of Teachers, Australian Childrens Education and
Care Quality Authority and current educational practice.
Participants will investigate techniques and processes
involved in establishing mentoring programs for pre-service
teachers.
By making the tacit aspects of mentoring explicit, participants
will learn how to manage the most challenging aspects of
the mentoring process and set the conditions for sustainable
long-term change in mentees.

Dierentiated Mentoring Framework

This professional development program is underpinned by this framework which links six interdependent commitments:

CATHOLIC, IDENTITY
AND MISSION

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT

CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES

DEVELOPMENTAL FOCUS

MENTORING
RELATIONSHIP

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Intellectual engagement:
Within the mentoring relationship mentors and mentees
engage with the traditions, histories and theories of
knowledge and learning. This component acknowledges that
the work of teachers is deeply intellectual work that requires
educators to articulate their theories of practice and build a
professional vocabulary to analyse and share their practice.

Mentoring relationship:
Relationships lie at the core of mentoring practices. Therefore
relational connections between the mentor and the mentee
appear at the centre of this framework and permeate
throughout the mentoring experience.
Developmental focus:
The development of the mentoring relationship is based on
the identified needs of the mentor and mentee. It is through
the application of a differentiated lens that mentors and
mentees identify developmentally appropriate strategies and
focus areas for professional practice, reflexivity and growth.

Communities of practice:
The mentoring relationship occurs within and across a web of
networked communities. Collaboration within communities
can lead to the development of transformational partnerships
that support sustainability and reciprocity.

Contextual influences:
The mentoring relationship is guided by the purpose of the
program and the context in which the mentoring occurs.
Educational contexts have a unique culture, community and
curriculum which shape the mentoring process.

Catholic, Identity and Mission:

Within the Catholic intellectual tradition and acting in Truth
and Love, Australian Catholic University is committed to
the pursuit of knowledge, the dignity of the human person
and the common good. The ACUMentoring framework for
mentoring focusses on the development of ethical behavior,
critical habit of mind and an appreciation of the sacred in life,
and how this is formed and shaped by our Catholic Tradition.

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Mentoring Accreditation Program for Mentors of Pre-service Teachers

This professional development program can be delivered in face to face mode in four sessions. A range of delivery options are
available. The program builds teachers knowledge and skills as a mentor, therefore all sessions integrate modelling and the
practice of skills with key concepts drawn from national and international research.

SESSION ONE

SESSION TWO

Mentoring for teachers in the

21st Century (3 hours)

Eective mentoring of preservice teachers

(3 hours)

Aim: Describe and evaluate the key

approaches to adult learning and teacher
development.

Aim: Understand and apply the ACU

Dierentiated Mentoring Framework for
pre-service teachers in diverse contexts.

SESSION THREE

SESSION FOUR

Observation, evidence and making

judgements (3 hours)

Sustaining professional learning through

mentoring (3 hours)

Aim: Build capacities in the co-construction

of evidence and judgement through the
development of mentoring practice.

Aim: Build capacities in designing and

leading a range of mentoring activities for
pre-service teachers.
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Session One: Mentoring for teachers in the 21st Century

This introductory session explores the important role of the
teacher in the continuum of teacher education, the nature
of teacher learning and the role of mentoring in supporting
ongoing professional learning and development.
The ACUMentoring Differentiated Mentoring Framework will
be outlined and applied to a video case study.

Food for thought

The era of isolated teachers, working alone to meet the
myriad needs of all their students is neither educationally
effective nor economically viable in the 21st CenturyWhen
teachers are given the tools to collaborate, they become
life-long learners, their instructional practice improves, and
they are ultimately able to increase achievement far beyond
what any of them could accomplish alone.
(Carroll, Fulton & Doerr, 2010, p.7)

Focus mentor skills

Developing empathetic listening and respecting diversity in
learning approaches.

Focus questions
o What are the challenges of teaching in our current times? o What is empathic listening and why is this essential
for mentors?
o How do teachers learn and develop?
o Who is responsible and accountable for teacher
o How might a different view or approaches to the
education?
professional learning of teachers address the needs of
o What are the boundaries of teacher education?
teachers at the various career stages as outlined in the
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST)?

Session Two: Eective mentoring of pre-service teachers

Mentoring is a complex process with relational aspects at
the core. This session covers a range of strategies to address
the complexities of mentoring pre-service teachers. Effective
mentoring approaches are identified and explored through
case studies in a range of educational contexts.

Food for thought

mentoring relationships are more commonly both
reciprocal and asymmetrical, meaning that there are shared
responsibilities between the participants, but one participant
may be more experienced and take the lead within the
relationship. Thus, the mutuality of the relationship offsets
hierarchical factors that may emerge such as power struggles
Descriptors such as nurture, support, mutuality,
and trust encompass the relational component. (Ambrosetti,
Knight & Dekkers, 2014, p.225)

Focus mentor skills

Developing professional learning conversations and
identifying professional needs.

Focus questions
o What is differentiated mentoring?
o What are the contributing components to effective
differentiated mentoring?
o What are the qualities of an effective mentor and
mentee?

o What does a mentor and mentee actually do?

o How is the mentor and mentee relationship defined?
o What is critical reflection and how might assumptions
impact on the mentoring relationship?
o What are the reciprocal dimensions of mentoring?
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Session Three: Observation, evidence and making judgements

Focus questions

Mentoring programs involving pre-service teachers often

require the mentor to apply their professional judgement.
This session explores how the mentoring relationship and
professional conversations based on evidence can co-exist.
This session also focusses on the Australian Professional
Standards for Teachers in action and explores how evidence
may be located and moderated at the Graduate Career Stage.

oo What is evidence and how is it used to assess practice?

oo How do mentor teachers make judgements based on the
APST?
oo How can judgement and mentoring co-exist?
oo How can assessment be co-constructed?
oo What might evidence at the Graduate Career Stage look
like?
oo What are the essential skills of observation?

Focus mentor skills

Developing observing and identifying evidence to inform the
mentoring process.

Food for thought

The traditional practice of pre-service teacher supervision, where the focus has been on socialization into a setting and the
assessment of performance, is limiting to the future teachers growth as a professional. Without the opportunity to challenge
personal philosophies and existing practices, pre-service teachers merely perpetuate the behaviour and beliefs of supervising
teachers. The potential result is a teacher who knows how to fit in to existing contexts, but lacks the skills and confidence to
make decisions that will make a difference...It is not the intention that professional experience exclude the ideas of socialization
and performance assessment, but it is stressed that the way these happen is not one of one-way communication. The preservice teacher needs to take an active role by reflecting on, and engaging with, both the context and their own role within it...
Mentoring, rather than supervision, by the experienced teacher promotes a collegial relationship that fosters each individual preservice teacher to develop his/her own identity as a professional teacher. (Walkington, 2005, p.63)

Session Four: Sustaining professional learning

Focus questions

This final session explores the Catholic Mission, concepts

of distributed leadership and communities of practice
and investigates how mentoring programs can provide
professional learning for teachers at all career stages.

oo How might an effective mentoring program for preservice teachers be designed and implemented?
oo How might the complexities of workplace relationships,
micro politics and emotional labour for all stakeholders
involved in the mentoring impact on professional
learning?
oo How might these complexities be addressed in a
mentoring program for pre-service teachers?

Focus mentor skills

Developing an action matrix outlining how differentiated
mentoring may be implemented in your context.

Food for thought

Although the majority of reviewed studies revealed that mentoring does provide a range of positive outcomes for mentors,
mentees, and the organization, it is not, however, without its dark side. In some cases, poor mentoring can be worse than no
mentoring at all. Our belief is that the potential problems of mentoring are not insurmountable. With careful and sensitive
planning and skilful leadership, most problems can be minimized If resources (both human and financial) are to be invested
in mentoring programs, those responsible for planning and implementing programs must be willing to commit time,
resources, and energy to such programs. Indeed, all parties have a responsibility to make mentoring work so that it can be a
positive force for individuals and their organizations. (Ehrich, Hansford & Tennent, 2004, p.536)

References:
Ambrosetti, A., Knight, B. A., & Dekkers, J. (2014). Maximizing the potential of mentoring: A framework for pre-service teacher education.
Mentoring & Tutoring, 22(3), 224.
Carroll, T., Fulton, K., & Doerr, H. (2010). Team up for 21st century teaching and learning: What research and practice reveal about professional learning.
Washington, DC: National Commission on Teaching and Americas Future. Retrieved on 16/02/2015 from http://nctaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/
TeamUp-CE-Web.pdf
Ehrich, L. C., Hansford, B., & Tennent, L. (2004). Formal mentoring programs in education and other professions: A review of the literature. Educational
Administration Quarterly, 40(4), 518-540.
Walkington, J. (2005). Becoming a teacher: Encouraging development of teacher identity through reflective practice. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher
Education, 33(1), 53-64.

Where to from here

Ongoing Professional Learning

ACU invite you to join ACUMentoring online.

Completion of a mentoring professional development

program offers you a gateway to further professional
learning exploring mentoring across all career pathways
extending along the continuum of experience from preservice through to educational leadership. This professional
development program links to the ACU Master of Education
unit EDTS607: Mentoring for Professional Learning and
Development.

All materials supporting the professional development

programs are located on the ACUMentoring website,
www.acu.edu.au/mentoringhub.
Participants are invited to register with ACUMentoring to
access further resources, complete the program and receive
their certificate of completion.

EDTS607 is oered in the following study terms:

Winter Term: May - July
Summer Term: December February
For more information about the Master of Education go to:
www.acu.edu.au/courses

For more information

Please email ACUMentoring Academic Leader Dr Joanna Barbousas at ACUMentoring@acu.edu.au

www.acu.edu.au/mentoringhub