Ann M. Heirdsfield

Peer mentoring for first‐year teacher education students: the mentors’ experience

Universities worldwide are developing peer mentoring programmes to assist first‐year students’ transition into university life. Awareness of the mentees’ experiences in the mentoring programme – the successes and challenges – contributes to ongoing planning for successful transition for first‐year students. Also, understanding the mentors’ experiences can contribute to the success of the programme and, more importantly, can lead to strong self efficacy for the mentors. This qualitative study appraises a mentoring programme for first‐year undergraduate students from the mentors’ perspective. The mentors’ experiences, both positive and negative, are discussed and a relational model of mentoring is presented. The results of this inquiry have implications for the development of future mentoring programmes, particularly in terms of mentor recruitment and preparation, if first‐year students are to be effectively oriented and supported in their transition to university study.

Beginning teachers becoming professionals through action research

Abstract This article describes the conduct of and acquired understandings from a study designed to promote the professional growth of a group of beginning primary school teachers through participatory action research. The beginning teachers collaborated with university academic staff during the design and conduct of the study. A key component of the study was the formation of action research cells of participating teachers with each group focusing on particular aspects of teaching, for example, assessment, catering for gifted and talented students, and inclusivity in the classroom teaching programme. The overall findings from the study, from the view of the university researchers, are presented and reflected upon in this article. The implications of using action research for the professional growth of beginning teachers are also discussed.

Flexibility and inflexibility in accurate mental addition and subtraction: two case studies

This paper reports on a study of two children’s mental computation in addition and subtraction, and compares their mental architecture. Both students were identified as being accurate, however, one student used a variety of mental strategies (was flexible) while the other student used only one strategy that reflected the written procedure for each of the addition and subtraction algorithms taught in the classroom. Interviews were used to identify both children’s knowledge and ability with respect to number sense (including numeration, number and operations, basic facts, estimation), metacognition and affects. Frameworks were developed to show how these factors interacted to explain the two types of accuracy in mental addition and subtraction. Flexible accuracy was related to the presence of strong number sense knowledge integrated with metacognitive strategies and beliefs and beliefs about self and teaching; while inflexible accuracy was a result of compensation of inadequate knowledge supported by beliefs about self and teaching.

Developing Peer Mentoring Support for TAFE Students Entering 1st-Year University Early Childhood Studies

At Queensland University of Technology (QUT, Australia), in the Bachelor of Education (BEd) (Early Childhood) (EC), Technical and Further Education (TAFE) students with a diploma enroll with advanced standing (1 year’s credit). These students share many challenges faced by 1st-year university students—workload, technology, academic orientation, and application. They also experience feelings of isolation and uncertainty in dealing with the “university culture” (Cantwell & Scevak, 2004; Dickson, 2000). Often, they do not perform as well academically and their attrition rates are higher than those for 1st-year students and the remainder of the BEd (EC) cohort (Strategic Information & Analysis Division of Finance, Resources, Planning, QUT, 2003). This project addresses issues facing these students in their transition to university by developing an integrated and contextualized mentoring program designed specifically for their needs. Nine early childhood 3rd- and 4th-year students were enlisted as mentors to groups of approximately six transition TAFE students. In this paper we discuss the dynamics of the mentoring scheme and future directions for mentoring projects within the BEd (EC).