Angelina Ambrosetti

Maximizing the Potential of Mentoring: A Framework for Pre-Service Teacher Education.

Within the professional placement component of pre-service teacher education, mentoring has become a strategy that is used during the practical application of learning to teach. In this paper, we examine mentoring in the pre-service teacher education context by proposing a theoretically based framework for mentoring in this context. Firstly, the nature of mentoring along with mentoring in the context of pre-service teacher education is explored. A mentoring framework that has been developed to enable pre-service teacher educators to maximize the potential use of mentoring during the professional placement component of a pre-service teacher education degree is then proposed.

Mentoring in the rail context: the influence of training, style, and practice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate workplace learning in the context of the rail industry, specifically for the type of learning required to become a train driver. It examines the impact of changes to the traditional learning model, and explores the potential of mentoring in the learning/training model. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a participative research approach to examine training experiences with trainee drivers and driver trainers (n = 61) in six Australian rail organisations. The data are synthesised based on an inductive thematic analysis from focus groups, interviews and cab-rides. Findings – Current driver-learning approaches contain a number of haphazard elements that provide an unfavourable learning experience. Mentoring practices appear to be happening incidentally, despite train drivers wanting mentoring experiences. Practical implications – In the designing and planning of new driver-learning frameworks, it is important to identify the unintended conseque...

Educating Future Teachers: Insights, Conclusions and Challenges

Educating the teachers of the future is not without its challenges, however innovation offers alternative ways of thinking and doing. At the heart of innovation and innovative practices in initial teacher education is the professional experience, a highly valued and significant component of learning to teach. When we speak of innovation we refer to changing or creating better processes, products and ideas. This chapter highlights the insights, challenges and conclusions that have emerged from research findings of new practices in professional experience in Australian initial teacher education programs. Our analysis of the innovations presented in this volume of work brings to light three themes that help us to answer the questions that were proposed in our quest to unearth innovation in professional experience.

Theorising the third space of professional experience partnerships

Across the international research literature, references to the problematic ‘theory-practice gap’ in initial teacher education abound. Essentially, this refers to the dialectical positioning of university-based learning about teaching as abstracted theory in opposition to situated school-based learning about teaching through practice. This perceived theory-practice gap is exacerbated by the fact that the distinction between university-based and school-based learning is not only figurative but also literal, resulting in confusion amongst preservice teachers who often perceive an irreconcilable tension between the theories learned at the university and the practices observed during their professional experience in schools.

Mentoring triad: an alternative mentoring model for preservice teacher education?

Abstract Within many preservice teacher education programs in Australia, mentoring is used as the overarching methodology for the professional placement. The professional placement is considered to be a key component of learning to teach, and typically a dyad mentoring model is utilized. However, it is reported that many preservice teachers experience a less than successful placement when a dyad model is used. This research explored an alternative mentoring model that placed two preservice teachers with a classroom teacher and investigated the mentoring that transpired. The research examined the interactions that occurred between the triad members, in particular those that took place between the two preservice teachers as peers. A theoretical framework that focused on a holistic mentoring model was utilized to frame the research and analyze the data. It was found that the use of a mentoring triad extended the scope of mentor support that can be provided to preservice teachers.

Reclaiming Educator Professionalism in and for Uncertain Times

Uncertainty in education and teacher education is a certainty in the current international policy context. One of the challenges within this constant process of change and focus on providing evidence of effectiveness is retaining our attention on the purpose of education. Gert Biesta challenges us to reclaim teacher professionalism and engage in discussion about education and its purposes in the context of schooling. Our challenge in this book is to explore and reflect on implications within teacher education and the ways research and scholarship contribute to this discussion. Through reflection on Biesta’s (Eur J Educ 50: 1, p. 75–87, 2015) three functions of education qualification, socialisation and subjectification, we aim to engage teacher educators, mentor teachers, school administrators, in-service teachers and pre-service teachers in discussions about the purposes of education. The volume contributes towards discussions about what good education is, and our reflections explore how scholarship provides a space where educators can reclaim their professionalism. Educators across all sectors need to engage in discussion to provide solid justifications for their actions in taking forward education and education research in their context with the aim of making a positive contribution to society. The chapter explores the positive contributions teacher education is making to this debate and identifies ways we can reclaim democratic professionalisms with implications for policy, practice and research.

Immersion Programs in Australia: Exploring Four Models for Developing ‘Classroom-Ready’ Teachers

‘Classroom-ready’ graduate teachers require a sound understanding of the complex context that constitutes the ‘classroom’ in which they are expected to teach. The preservice teachers’ experiences within schools provide critical insights into these complexities and provide ongoing professional development towards their classroom readiness. It is in the school setting where theory learnt at university can inform and support preservice teachers to make sense of their observations of students’ learning, teachers’ teaching and their own teaching practice. We contend that within a traditional professional experience, the opportunities to link educational theory to teaching practice are usually incidental rather than purposeful, with preservice teachers often having limited opportunity to observe and experience the multifaceted nature of being a teacher. At both the state and national levels, governments are advocating for the improvement of preservice teachers’ school experiences and for universities to ensure the graduation of ‘classroom-ready’ teachers. This chapter examines how initial teacher education providers are enhancing preservice teachers’ teaching and learning experiences through innovative in-school immersion programs with the goal of producing more professionally prepared, ‘classroom-ready’ graduates. The chapter showcases four different models of school immersion programs from across Australia, outlining the purpose, structure and intended outcomes of each. A critique of these models highlighting tensions and vulnerabilities to implementation of immersion programs results in recommendations for initial teacher education providers who are seeking to support the immersion of preservice teachers as they transition into the teaching profession.

Introduction: Researching Innovative Perspectives in Professional Experience

Professional experience in initial teacher education has always been valued, though there is limited agreement in Australia around the structure and knowledge base. Teacher educators from a wide range of institutions and jurisdictions worked together at a conference in early 2016 to share, critique and celebrate their different perspectives and innovative programs. The result is this edited volume of 14 chapters, representing the work of 30 authors from 18 different Australian universities, a secondary school and a state regulatory authority. Through collaborations across borders and within the field, a more nuanced understanding of the varied elements of professional experience, including new and renewed knowledge, has been recorded. This chapter provides the background, aims, rationale and synopsis of sections and chapters in the volume.

Rail Simulation and Training: A Socio-Cultural and Technical Orchestration

A Symphony Orchestra is made up of strings, woodwind, horn and percussion sections but without a musical composition and a skilled conductor they will never produce the desired effect on the listener. Train simulators are also made up of many functional components but without carefully considered training content that is integrated into a wider training curriculum and supported by skilled and well-trained facilitators, simulators cannot be expected to reach their full potential. This paper will examine the socio-cultural environment of the rail organizations in which simulators exist and discuss possible reasons for the failure of them to be used to maximum effect. A set of success factors will be presented that need to be considered in order to improve simulator use. Possible methodologies for improving the content of simulations and the way in which they support critical decision-making schema of drivers will also be discussed and the need to develop specific simulator facilitation skills among training staff will be examined.