What mentors do and why relationships matter: Perceptions of effective mentoring practices

In our research project, Mentoring in Initial Teacher Education, we have explored what mentors actually do to help student teachers learn to teach. In this paper, we share key literature on mentoring practices that helped us design mentor and student teacher questionnaires to identify which practices were perceived to be most effective. These include mentoring practices ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of teaching. Inside practices allow student teachers to learn from mentors whilst they are teaching, for example through live coaching and co-teaching. Practices outside of teaching include co-planning and giving feedback. Our analysis of the questionnaire data, together with mentor interviews, revealed that both mentors and student teachers believed that a wide range of practices were effective (to varying degrees). We focus in on three practices: observing experts, co-planning and co-teaching, and giving feedback, and share findings about how mentors optimise the effectiveness of each practice. We identify practice-specific and overarching features, concluding that relationships between mentors and mentees underpin effective decision-making, and enable mentors to adapt their approach to meet the needs of mentees. Our research led us to develop an online mentor toolkit to help mentors develop and refine their repertoire of practices.