Teacher professional development : a case study of mentoring process of new senior secondary liberal studies

Abstract

Mentoring is commonly used to help pre-service and in-service teachers to attain professional development. With the implementation of the New Senior Secondary Liberal Studies (NSS LS) in September 2009, NSS LS became a compulsory core subject within the senior secondary education in Hong Kong. Teachers are encouraged to adopt student-oriented approach and integrated curriculum organization design in teaching and learning of this new distinct core subject (CDC& HKEAA, 2007). The “new” subject knowledge and pedagogical skills requirement of NSS LS may pose challenges to mentor-teachers when they are required to mentor student-teachers and/or induct new colleagues that they both face uncertainty and lack confidence.

This study examines how three case-studies of teachers at different stages of their career development have experienced professional development and learning through initial teacher education LS mentoring or LS teacher induction under the New Senior Secondary academic structure in Hong Kong. Both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were adopted to achieve deductive-inductive reasoning. Altogether there were two phases of data collection. Questionnaire survey, in-depth semi-structured case study interviews and documentary analysis were used for data collection.

Findings revealed that both the LS mentor-teachers and student-teachers put emphasis on the pragmatic roles of mentor-teachers such as managers, instructors, role models and feedback providers rather than as equal partners / mutual learners with the student-teachers and leaders in schools during the mentoring process. Student-teachers perceived themselves as learners and theory testers but were unable to become equal partners / mutual learners of their mentor-teachers. The four interactive factors, namely school context and characteristics, curriculum uniqueness of NSS LS, mentor-teacher and student-teacher characteristics, and mentoring relationship determined the mentoring approach used and how the LS mentoring was actualized in schools. Mentor-teachers were generally considered engaging and performing in LS mentoring in a similar way as if they were engaging in other conventional subject mentoring. Dyadic top-down apprenticeship mentoring was still dominant and significant. Both mentor-teachers and student-teachers in the three cases of this study had attained little professional development and learning through engaging activities in the different communities of practice (CoPs), such as LS collaborative lesson planning meetings and the community of enhancing lesson observations. Student-teachers, on the other hand, offered and obtained more emotional support and learned together with their peers and in their respective CoPs (mainly within LS rather than across other subjects). Limited social learning and interactions between mentor-teachers and student-teachers were found which led to low level of connection, expansion and alignment, and hence contributed to unhealthy identity formation. With reference to Casey and Claunch (2005)’s Stages of mentor growth, mentor-teachers were found generally positioned themselves at the first stage of predisposition or second stage of disequilibrium. At the same time, student-teachers in this study were found mostly at Stage 1: early idealism or Stage 2: personal survival according to Furlong and Maynard (1995)’s Stages of student learning. The cascading mentoring, unintentionally practised by one of the novice LS teachers, could be proposed to promote more cross-subjects and cross-generation LS mentoring support and to generate a more holistic professional development among mentor-teachers, student-teachers and other teachers in the school. To facilitate more effective future LS mentoring in initial teacher education, major stakeholders, such as the mentor-teachers, student-teachers, schools, EDB and teacher education institutes could work together through active participation, promotion and recognition of LS mentoring, to offer mentoring support and have sound understanding of the educational intention of NSS LS.