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Article Excerpt
Abstract
A growing body of research sites the need to mentor beginning teachers. A three-year university and school-based partnership is underway to mentor cooperating teachers of K-8 student teachers. The project's impact on teacher efficacy during year one is articulated. Implications of establishing mentor programs and their potential impact on teacher efficacy are presented.
Introduction
Since the early 1980's various commissions (Carnegie, 1986; Holmes, 1986; National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983; National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 1997), education organizations (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, 1990; Association of Teacher Educators, 2000) and researchers have urged mentoring of beginning teachers. Given the value of mentoring novice teachers as part of induction programs (Jenlink, Kinnucan-Welsch, & Odell 1996) and because mentors and new teachers working together to improve teaching and learning can serve as a model of professional development (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995), a growing body of research continues to echo the need to mentor beginning teachers. A three year collaborative project, between and among the College of Education at a southwestern university, local professional development boards, and local K-8 school districts was begun to provide mentoring to cooperating teachers who mentor K-8 student teachers. The results of year one of this project, based on preliminary numbers and anecdotal data, demonstrate not only an increase in cooperating teachers' knowledge and effective implementation of various mentoring strategies, but also indicate the mentoring project's impact on teacher efficacy.
Teacher Efficacy
In its broadest sense, teacher efficacy refers to teachers' beliefs about their ability to influence student outcomes (Berman, McLaughlin, Bass, Pauly, & Zellman, 1977). For decades, researchers have identified teacher efficacy as a crucial factor for improving teacher education and promoting educational reform (Ashton, 1984; Berman, et al., 1977; Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk Hoy, 2000; Rimm-Kaufman & Sawyer, 2004; Ross, 1998; Scharmann & Hampton, 1995; Wheatley, 2002). Teacher efficacy has been found to predict student achievement (Ashton & Webb, 1986; Goddard, et al., 2000; Herman, Meece, & McCombs, 2000; Muijs & Reynolds, 2001; Pajares & Schunk, 2001; Ross, 1992; Wenglinsky, 2000), student motivation (Herman, et al., 2000; Midgley, Feldlaufer, & Eccles, 1989; Pajares, 1997), and students' own sense of efficacy (Anderson, Greene, & Loewen, 1988; Haydel, Oescher, & Kirby, 1999). Further, teacher efficacy has been linked to teachers' enthusiasm for teaching (Allinder, 1994; Guskey, 1984; Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy, & Hoy, 1998), teachers' high confidence levels and positive attitudes (Guskey, 1984), their willingness to experiment with new methods (Berman et al., 1977; Ghaith & Yaghi, 1997; Guskey, 1988; Stein & Wang, 1988), the amount of effort and persistence a teacher demonstrates (Gibson & Dembo, 1984; Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998), their commitment to teaching (Coladarci, 1992; Evans & Tribble, 1986; Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998), teacher retention (Brouwers & Tomic, 2000; Darling-Hammond, Chung, & Frelow, 2002; Glickman & Tamashiro, 1982; Johnson & Birkeland, 2003) and an orderly and positive school atmosphere and greater classroom-based decision making (Borko & Putnam, 1996; Moore & Esselman, 1992; Richardson & Placier, 2001; Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998).
Mentoring of Teachers
Field experiences are considered to be the most powerful component of teacher education programs and cooperating teachers appear to have the greatest influence on a student teacher's professional development (Guyton, 1989; McIntyre, Byrd, & Foxx, 1996). In spite of this fact, most cooperating teachers do not have access to training related to mentoring successful student teachers. Learning to become a mentor is a conscious process of induction into a different teaching context and does not emerge naturally from being a good teacher of children (Orland, 2001). Further, researchers have underscored the importance of feedback in the mentoring process (Hudson, 2004; Hudson, Skamp, & Brooks, 2005) and several have reported that teachers with specific training were better at giving feedback to teacher candidates (Killian & McIntyre, 1986) and noted improvement in their communication with student teachers (Hauwiller, Abel, Ausel, & Sparapani, 1988-1989).
Several researchers suggest that mentoring has positive impacts on novice teachers (Danielson, 1999; Feiman-Nemser, 1996;...
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