CHAPTER 7

MAKING A GOOD START: MENTORING, TEACHING PLACEMENT AND FIRST

ENCOUNTERS WITH LEARNERS
Objectives
By the end of this chapter the reader will be able to:
1. Understand the importance of the first placement visit;
2. Identify the necessary observational tools needed to critically assess the nature of
placement institutions;
3. Write a plan of action for the first visit and be able to reflect upon the placement
institution once the first visit is over;
4. Put in place a set of actions to maximise the opportunity of the first encounter with
learners;
5. Develop an awareness of the mentoring roie and how to maximise mentoring support.
Understanding your placement institution
Educational institutions schools and colleges alike can he confusing and alien places. It
might help if we see educatv)nal institutions as examples of institutions: they have complex
structures with rules both formally set down (often in UK law) and informally shared by
communities of individuals in a common-sense fashion. Their routines are formally
tirnetabled and mapped in planning documents, and yet the feel of the routines in these
institutions varies often from class to class or teacher to teacher. Entering into such total
institutions is alien and unsettling (think how Year 7 learners feel moving up from primary
schools!). Membership of these institutions changes your identity in some way, for both
learner and teacher.
For the outsider, becoming comfortable within an educational institution is not a
simple matter. You need to get to grips with:
1. The legal aspects which underpin the teacher role and the teacherlearner
relationship, as now governed by the Every Child Matters legislation (see Chapter
19);
2. The timetable of the institution and the pace and feel this gives to the working day
(for example, some schools have now adopted a two-weekly timetable);T
3. The meeting schedule, cover rota and yearly calendars which add another level of
planning, organisation and structure to the daily timetable;
4. The rules of the institution, many of which will be both unspoken and not written
clown in raff handbooks. (This is what we mean, when we refer to rules as being
common-sense);
5. And, as a ti-ainee teacher, you need to develop strategies designed to present your
self to learners, managers, mentors and other staff in appropriate ways.
We can use the term habitus to describe how the pattern of the routines feel for those who
v;ork and learn inside these institutions. Habitus refers to how culture patterns our actions

and gives us a scripted set of rules and frameworks appropriate to different situations and
encounters. We learn what we can and cannot do and how to act. Over time, this even patterns
how we think and respond to others, to encounters and to other roles. Working inside an
institution both affects and regulates you. You need to learn what the pattern of these routines
is, and how it affects and structures your working life. These are really important, hut all too
infrequently spoken, aspects of teacher education: you need to take time to assess what it
means to work to the confines of a timetable and how this corn partrnentalises your day and
your interactions with groups of people, colleagues and learners.
The first visit
In order to maximise the opportunity Of the first evervisit to yourplacernent institution. you
might wish to consider the advice below You can see this as a useful checklist to follow:
1. Before von visit.

Look at the institutions website and read what it says about itself its mission
Statement and how it describes itself and its learners.
Find out the variety of subjects that are taught that are closely related to your own.
Find out what levels and what types of qualifIcations are offered.
Dress smartly (and then find out what the institutional codes are for dress once you
arrive there).

2. During your first visit.

Please be careful how you manage the process of finding out the following information. It is
usually better to allow the institution to direct what you are initially told and how you find it
out. Do not push within the first few minutes all the answers to the following questions but
allow them to develop. Follow them up at the end of your visit if you need to. Try to find out:

What is the name of the head teacher/principal/director?

What is the name of the member of the senior management team (SMT) that is
responsible for overseeing trainees for the duration of their placement?
Does the institution have a copy of a flow chart illustrating the organisation and
structure of the institution?
What is the name of the head of the team you will be working in?
Find out how many subjects are taught by the team you are going to be working with
and how many classes they have.
Roughly speaking, what are class sizes like for the classes you are most likely to be
working with (they will almost certainly not be able to issue you with a complete
timetable as yet, but would have a rough idea)?
How many learners are in the institution as a whole?
What specification and what examination board do they follow (if you are teaching
examination classes)? Alternatively, are there schemes of work in place and, if so,
who is responsible for their creation/coordination? (Once you know this you then
have some serious follow-up work to do see below.)

Ask for a copy of both staff and learner handbooks/rules/guidelines. Ask for or
organise for yourself a tour of the campus (if one is not provided). If one is provided,
try and fInd time to have a quiet walk around on your own, taking into consideration
the points raised in the next section of this chapter).
What is the name of your mentor?
What is the average working day like in terms of hours and structure? (These vary
quite considerably.)
Is there a meeting rota? How much are you expected to contribute/take part?
Where will you he located? (Do not expect your own desk but do expect to have a
semi-regular place to be and to work.)
What are the procedures for reporting staff absence (just in case)? Who do you need
to tell and how? What telephone number should you use?
Do the team have textbooks or other resources to lend to you?

It may be difficult to find all this out in the first visit it might take a couple of visits to
do so. lf that is the case, do not worry Allow the school or college to guide and direct you, at
least initially most institutions have a well organised and planned structure in place for the
induction of trainee teachers and it might simply be easier to allow the information to come to
you piece by piece. Certainly do not make too many demands upon new colleagues you
must remember that you need to fit around and into the teams that have been set up before ru
and that will continue to operate long after your training is over. This is not to say you do not
have a massive contribution to make while training you do. But manage the self you
present to others so that you fIt it.
M-level thinking: Presentation of self
Sociologist Efving Goffman (1969) uses the term presentation of self to refer to the various
ways in which we act out roles in society according to the situations we find ourseles in.
He suggests that when we encounter others, we adopt techniques of impression
management -. we carefully try and manipulate and control the ways we want others to see
us. In many respects, being a teacher, and taking on this identity, is a process of
understanding and then acting out a role. The role of teacher is shaped by where you work
and it is also shaped by what the ethos of the institution is that you work within. Equally, as a
new teacher entering a new institution or even just meeting a class for the first time, you will
also want to manage your self: control the impression that you gives others the first time
they meet you. What elements do you think you will use to build your professional identity?
M-levelI thinking: Situated learning
Lave and Wenger (1991) use the term situated learning to describe the learning that takes
place within a community of practice. What this means is that this is a type of learning that is
undertaken where it is also applied in practice. This learning is co-constructed by the
meaning-making and negotiation of colleagues and members of the same communities. The
knowledge is not imposed and not detached from experience, but is fundamentally a part of
the actions and practice of those taking part.

Try and see your own placement as an exercise in situaied learning: you are learning to teach,
while teaching and working alongside other teachers who are part of the same community as
you. Good teaching is not possible in isolation bearing this in mind, try to work with your
ccfleagues and mentors, seeking support and ad1ice at aN times. Start placement and 7aur
career ascu meac do on. Given soua:&: earmnc. v.nat do you think your s-: .ceos a: this
point in t;me?
3. After your firsr visit

If you keep a dam or :uma see Chapter 5). wore clown what your first imoressions
and thougn:s of :he :nstitution :ne staff, the learners, the space and the atmosphere.
Use the website oi the aopropria:e exan na::cn board to look up the scecfication(s) that
you will be delivering if the: are able to tell you Downioad and print off the
specification plus other usefu! materials such us reachers guides and past
examination papers and specimen assessment materials if they exist.
It might be a worthwhile exercise to find the coleges most recent Ofsted report and
take a look at what it says about the subje.u ream ins ail be working with. However,
doing this comes with a warning staff msgL nave changed, the reports are often
written in a very particular tone and si. .e (see for yourself what we mean by this) and
the inspection itself cou: be a1 of four years ago. A lot can happen to any institution in
the meantime Trear this as a guide only nothing more.

Knowing what to look for? And knowing how to see it

It takes time t,o reall feel settled into your placement institution. rae feels like this. It is
important to remember two things:
1. Most teachers have themselves been through training and have had the same feeiings
of uncertainty at their own placement.
2. Really take the time to thoroughly induct yourself into the life and erhos of the
institution you will be training in. Try to understand it as much as you can.
Discussion point
When we speak of the factors that might shape the success of educaonal institutions, we often
speak ofin-school and out-of-school factors (see Chapter 12). The out-of-school factors
that would shape the nature of your placement institution have a lot to c with the class and
cultural make-no of the iocai area. You might wish to search the pages of the local acH:, or
s:atistics about the area housing. social deprivation, employrnen: i-es ilI help you to
undestand the context within which the school or colene coerates. What is the context within
which your placement, school or college czerates?
When thinking about the school or college as a learning community, it is vital you understand
its ethos the educational spirit and atmosphere and how the acions of teachers and learners
alike set the tone of this atmosphere
1. Obseror.g the environment.

What is the buhding like?

How old is the building?
Does the reception seem welcoming? How does it, or does it nor, give this
imDression?
How does the security of the school or college operate?
What posters, art work, displays in the front reception are there? What do these so:
shout the teachers and learners?
What are classrooms like? How are they laid out? Whn is the furniture like? i-ccv
modern is it?
What electronic resources do classrooms have? Ai-e they being used?

2. Observing classes.
Most initial teacher education programmes will ask you to record observations of experienced
teachers. Do not underestimate the importance of this opportunity. It will be, sadly, one of the
verv few times in your career where you will have such access to a dierse variety of teaching
styles and methods and so really make the most of it. Do not rush in to start your own
teaching, hut learn from others fIrst.
We provide a more complete set of observational questions in Chapter 8, but consider the
broad ideas below. Be mintindful of these, they might help you to understand placement
institution better. and all the quicker:

How do learners enter th.e casroom?

Where do learners sit? How much direction or input does the teacher have/should
have in this?
What does the teacher do before the lesson offIcially starts? How much interaction is
there and what is it like?
Where does the teacher stand or sit? Why do you think this is? (And was it the right
decision?)