Questions and Answers for student teaching mentor teachers

The following are commonly asked questions asked by mentors. We hope you will find the responses are of value and supportive of your work with EA participants.

[NOTE – only show questions – pop up boxes for responses]

• Does my student understand the curriculum I have to teach?
  

  This is not really as large a problem as you might think it is surprising how many similarities there are between curricula in different countries. Literacy, numeracy, thinking skills, citizenship etc. all have a 'world' dimension to them, and even individual subjects often contain similar or complementary material. Examinations or student evaluation are carried out in every country and the notion of standards is truly global!

• What should happen in the first few days in school?
  
  • Student teachers should begin by learning about the curriculum and ways in which you work with students. To help them understand the educational context they are working in, we provide a guide to use in collecting information about the school and how it 'ticks' in preparation for their presenting a description of their teaching practice location.
  • Student Teaching students have varied experiences and lengths of time in previous classrooms. Some will need to complete more focused observation in order to develop their skills and readiness for teaching. Others will take quite naturally to working with groups or classes very early on. Student responses on their application and to a short questionnaire are shared with you to help determine the appropriate place for them to start.
• How should I act as a role model?
  
  • Students' initial concerns generally focus on how to establish effective working relationships with you and how to manage the class. These are good startingpoints for discussion.
  • It is sometimes difficult for teachers to actually pin point how they manage their classes as it often becomes a natural process which is difficult to describe. It is important to discuss the rules, routines and rituals of the classroom through which the student can observe, identify with, and copy these strategies and more quickly assume the role of teacher and increased responsibility in the classroom.
• What is the role of a critical friend?
  

  If student teachers are to develop a realistic understanding of their role in the processes of effective teaching and learning, they must be encouraged to reflect on their performance in the classroom and the effectiveness of their teaching. Mentors need to challenge students to re-examine their teaching whilst at the same time providing support and encouragement to those who might be extremely unsure of their teaching abilities, (even though they might be good) and in need of reassurance.

• What sort of observation should the student teachers do?
  

  General classroom observation is useful to begin with, but asking the students to focus on particular aspects allows them to internalize ways of working and recognize their effectiveness. For example, students might be asked to focus their observation on:

  • The start of a lesson - what are the expectations of how students will organize themselves, how are activities introduced, how are interruptions dealt with?
  • How is attention gained and maintained in class?
  • What are the rules for working in the classroom, collecting resources, acceptable noise levels?
  • How is the lesson concluded? How does the teacher know that 'magic' moment when it is time to pack up?
  • How does the teacher deal with those moments of interruption either from within the classroom or externally?
• How can I involve the student teacher early on?
  

  Working with the student teacher in a collaborative way from the beginning helps the student teacher establish their role in the classroom whilst the class teacher remains responsible for the management of the lesson. Student teachers might help by:

  • Handing out resources
  • Collecting materials, books
  • Assisting individual students in the class
  • Joining in activities such as participating in small group discussions
  • Teaching a part of the lesson
  • Offering a point of view in response to the teacher asking their opinion
• What should I do to help the student?
  

  Establish a regular programme of observation and feedback. In the early stages be supportive in your initial comments while focusing on significant issues rather than every detail of the lesson.

  • 'That was very brave of you', 'some of the activities went down well', 'you looked as if you really enjoyed that' can be good ways to introduce looking at parts of the lesson in detail.
  • It is always good to begin by asking the student teacher how they felt it went, and to tailor your response to their answer. They might think the lesson went very well when it did not! In this case work through what they thought was good and not as good as a way of developing the discussion further.
  • Decide between you which are the major points to work on and assure they are highlighted in the next lesson plan.

  Discussing lesson plans

  • It may be quite a long time since you wrote detailed lessons plans, but you may remember them! Student teachers must prepare written plans for every lesson in order to understand how effective lessons are designed and to develop the ability to make the process implicit in their teaching.
  • The most difficult part is often setting the objectives for the lesson. Student teachers often set too many and make them too complicated. Objectives, often known as learning outcomes, identify why we are going to teach this lesson and what will the pupils learn, for example: 'In this lesson the students will learn
    • About the human and physical features of our community.
    • To develop skills of interpreting photographs
    • To identify individual features of a town on a map

  My personal objective will be: To project my voice in the classroom rather than shout across the room

  Assessing learning outcomes

  The learning outcomes should be referred to in the evaluation of the lesson. Did the students achieve these? Which ones need to be reinforced next time? Which students did not do so well and how can I help them to achieve the outcomes?

  Questions you might find helpful to ask, in discussing objectives and lessons with your student teacher, include:

  • What exactly do you want the students to learn? (Student teachers often focus on the activity rather than why they are asking the class to do it)
  • Do you know what the students already know about this? How could you find out?
  • How will you differentiate the task for varying levels of ability?
  • How appropriate do you think your chosen strategy was?
  • How do you know the students learned anything? How will you assess and evaluate their learning?
  • How was your timing?

  Provide opportunities for the student teacher to observe other teachers.

  This is an excellent way of helping student teachers to see how other teachers work. Teaching is a highly individual occupation we all have to find out the way we can personally work best with a class and seeing a variety of different styles can be really helpful. It is also useful for a student teacher to see different age groups at work as this provides a practical understanding of the notion of 'progression' - that truly elusive educational concept!

• What do I do when the lesson goes really badly for the student?
  

  This is bound to occur at some time as it does for all educators!

  • Try to remain on the sidelines unless a crisis develops and the student teacher clearly cannot handle it on their own.
  • Make a clear list for yourself as to the practicalities of what went wrong.
  • When you do talk to the student about the lesson they are probably all too well aware of the disaster! Give encouragement and support and ask the student to talk you through the lesson from original planning through the lesson. They will almost inevitably give some useful pointers you can pick up on and talk through with a view to asking what changes they would make.
  • Asking, 'if you now had exactly the same class to teach the lesson to and the students were now entering the classroom, what would you do the same and what would you do differently?' can be an effective way to stimulate their thinking about lesson effectiveness.

  Problems are usually linked to one or more of these areas;

  • Content and planning revisit the lesson plan and review ensure that the lesson is broken down into component parts with timings. Is the subject content appropriate?
  • Inappropriate activities talk about having 'plan B' available with different activities
  • Timing often the most common issuewatch the clockput a watch/clock on the table
  • Behaviour issues talk through strategies of setting expectations/what should happen if these are not followed?

  General atmosphere

  • The student needs to recognize that the learning environment can be disrupted by external influences (fire drills, people being told off inprevious lesson, snow falling, people arriving late etc.) and that the planned activities will just not be successful in the prevailing climate in the classroom. A 'plan B' is always needed for such emergencies.
  • 'Plan B' is also needed in case the video doesn't work or the students haven't brought what they have been told to bring. As teachers we work with these situations every day; student teachers on the other hand often feel that the world has crashed about their ears!
• Will the EA supervisor be available to help if needed?
  
  • If you have any worries or need ideas on how to help your student teacher, the supervisor is the person to contact. We are always willing to support both the student and the mentor.
  • We hope that you find your time with the student teacher rewarding and fulfilling. You, as the class teacher are tremendously important in passing on the 'craft of the classroom' to the student teachers and you have the chance to influence how perhaps many youngsters will learn in the future.