The Mentor`S Role On The Development Of Didactic Teaching Profession Context

Abstract

The actual educational politics and systems are in search of solutions for efficiency and innovation in education and school. One of the components to be considered is the measured target of quality of human resources in fact teachers but also the methods used in teaching and evaluation process. More than ever, the didactic profession has been a permanent preoccupation for education specialists. It can be characterized by flexibility, dynamism, moderate receptivity to new and critical reflection. Nowdays the teacher is no longer a person who knows all of them in his specialty, but also a person who must be aware of his influence on the others and must keep up-to-date and to integrate new technologies into the teaching process to reflect on its actions promoting a quality learning. An important aspect of teaching profession and teaching career are the initial training stages. The professional debut for a didactic profession means to identify through mentoring activities an optimal strategy to efficiency and professional integration of the future teachers. Through our research, we have proposed to offer concrete solutions for optimizing the initial training of future didactical staff thru mentoring programmes. We also emphasize with the complexity of the teaching profession, the new roles and competences on which teachers need to assume them and form them, to highlight the status of the didactic profession, the importance of standards for the teaching profession and improving students' outcomes for a quality learning.

Keywords: Mentor;coachprotégés -mentored person;initial and continue training;goal

Introduction

I choose this topic on teacher education as a continuous professional development because it reflects our needs as teachers in an obvious changing world. It allows discussions on the complex role of the menthor teacher`s role today. It is quite thruth that it is a needing situation for the debutants – protege teachers in the system. It allows discussions on the complex role of the teachers today. We must answer also to this question ``Why Updates And Upgrades In Teachers Education``? Teaching is a lifelong profession. Mentoring is a mutually agreeable relationship that is sustained over time and intended to further the educational and professional development of the disciple (Brandt, 1987).

We learn while teaching others also from other people’s experiences. Teacher education vs Teacher training is a present issue . The term ``teacher training`` (which may give the impression that the activity involves training staff to undertake relatively routine tasks) seems to be losing ground to '``teacher education`` (with its connotation of preparing staff for a professional role as a reflective practitioner).

Teacher education refers to the policies and procedures designed to equip prospective teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school and wider community (Perraton, 2010).

A mentor shall act as a professional coach, much like in athletics, advising, guiding, providing self-esteem, feedback, and developing instructional strategies with the protege. Mentor will also assist the protege to became tailored to the procedures, policies, culture, and people unique to school. All new teachers , whether new to the profession, new to the school, or new to an academic area, will be given an opportunity to work with a mentor. A program mentoring is focused on meeting individual needs, modelling collaborative professional work, and promoting professional growth (Dyer, 2001).

Universities in Romania provide initial teacher education, as well as continuing professional development.

Didactic Institute Corps viewed as teacher training houses, County School Inspectorates in Romania provide both of them initiate and continuing professional development. The Law of Education regulates the status of teacher education in Romania. According to article 245(1), continuing professional development is a right and an obligation for all teachers. Teacher education institutions are capable of bringing changes within educational systems. They serve as key change agents in transforming education and society (National Educational Law No.1 /2011).

New generations of students in the changing educational environment the role of schools in the community the statut of debute teachers in a fact represents the fast changing educational system. Prompted by massive revolutions in knowledge, information technology, and public demand for better learning, schools everywhere in the world are slowly but surely restructuring themselves. And so is the teacher education- updating and upgrading itself. Instruction doesn't consist primarily of lecturing to students who sit in rows at desks, dutifully listening and recording what they hear, but, rather, offers every child a rich, rewarding, and unique learning experience.

The educational environment isn't confined to the classroom but, instead, extends into the home and the community and around the world. Information isn't bound primarily in books; it's available everywhere in bits and bytes. Students aren't consumers of facts. They are active creators of knowledge. Schools aren't just brick-and-mortar structures - they're centers of lifelong learning. And, most important, teaching is recognized as one of the most challenging and respected career choices, absolutely vital to the social, cultural, and economic health of our nation.

Youth Development and Leadership mentoring centers on positive skills, attitudes, and behaviors around civic involvement and personal goal setting. Leading centers on attitudes, skills, and behaviors that are demonstrated by maintaining optimal physical and emotional well-being.

The desired characteristics and skills needed for success as a mentor must be: coaching, tutoring, emphatically, trustworthy, confidentially. Mentor must act flexibility, integrity, nurturing, positivity. Mentors also must have the ability to: communicate clearly and positively, to observe teaching and to discuss observations objectively and non judgmentally, have to plan in advance for teaching and mentoring work to minimize the stress and negative impact on the mentor's own students/teachers and maximize the positive impact on the protege's teachers by expecting outcomes learning.

A mentor can provide a role model within the school organization for both the new and experienced teacher. There are many types of mentoring within organization. In education there is induction mentoring to include teachers new to the didactic profession and teachers with minimal experience returning to the profession.

Mentoring can also benefit experienced teachers new to a school district, building, a department, grade level, or a subject area. While the primary focus of this network is in the training of the adult in non-formal education, another level of mentoring would involve teacher/student combinations.

Problem Statement

Experts or programme coordinators on the education segment offer advice on selecting mentors by a systematic procedure clearly articulated. Possible mentors should have cross-questions before accept the coach work. Purpose for choosing mentors to have similitudes with their protege as possible, by criteria like subject area or level grad or style teaching is not an efficient benchmark.

Educational experts again recommend that the mentor have at least five years of teaching experience at class and eight up to one years older than the novice teachers. We must maintain flexibility or alignment so that debutant teachers can be rebalanced in case of pairing mentor - protege as upper management doesn`t swing into action.

The mentor` role must be well assigned and if we have expectations for efficient outcomes. The mentor`s role in terms of functions such as "support or shoulder-offering", define the mentoring tasks in terms of activities, such as "observe, coach, or plan" focus on activities that new staff value the most is curriculum and class management. Mentors can`t "do it all".

We have to encourage and remind mentors to help the protege build strong links with and ability to learn from others besides the mentor. We should teach mentors to diagnose the protege's needs and targets helping in those areas where the protege is ready to learn. Feed-back must be non-judgmental, descriptive and positive all the time. Expectations for mentors are that they must know the expectation for their communication with program leaders or coordinators, school managers but should have options such as dialogue journals, personal conferences.

Mentors must know the expectation for their peer-collaboration with their proteges. Guideling priciple and statements such as "every day during the first three weeks, then 2-3 times a week", and "weekly is normal after the first semester" is this situation mode.

Modifying the beginning teacher's labour to increase liable of success is getting right by reducing: class over sizes, preparations, number of difficult children, travel between schools stroke to specialty area or level that is not the new teacher's strength athletic or dramatic coaching, extra-curricular student lessons, non formal education.

Educational experts hightlight the importance of assignment training for peer - coaching and mentoring. For peer - coaching and mentoring it is need for adequate skills to meet additional needs than usual in teaching in porpoise to develop `` how to work`` connection with debutant teachers based on bearer band-aid solution for an able swing.

In peer-coaching strategy initial teachers acquire setback argumentation and methodical facilities from their pair-upper teachers. A mentor may coach, but a coach is not a mentor. Mentoring is “relational,” while coaching is “functional.” There are other significant differences to.

The recent mentoring researches recognize proper advantages of peer -coaching for teachers practices either first there was an inadequate attitude towards this. Than it was increase the qualification on actuating new teaching strategies and fulfilling the educational school climate.

According to a master teacher experience he is viewed as a coach. An expert in education is a teacher that has certified skills and experience in teaching and forming activities and also can be a mentor for an initial teacher. The expert or the mentor activity is to observe and to guide the initial teacher to increase experience in teaching.

All the information during peer - coaching activity has to be confidential and the exception to this is when it involves an evaluation module.

As a compulsive aspect it is important to notice that personal style of the mentor and protege improves the mentoring process and relationship context. Most situations implies consolidated personal bonds between the mentor and protege from social and friendly up to a professional dialogue.

It is need to establish a mentor convention by increasing the peer- coaching convention from the early beginning and to do peer coaching weekly in the first two or three weeks. In case of coaching sessions doesn't start for a month peer activity will be inefficient and training level become less important.

Mentoring activity has become a consolidated relationship built between the mentor and the young teacher that is running through support, consideration, friendship constructive bounds , mentorship activity over a period of time . Mentoring principles and practices date back to ancient times where masters taught, coached and guided the skills development of apprentices. Mentoring is a relationship built on trust and the results of a successful mentoring relationship can be profound and significant for both sides.

Mentoring can offers not only academic and career guidance, but also role models for leadership, interpersonal and problem-solving skills.

Research Questions

Training and Launching the Program

The most important issue is providing sufficient trainings for all participants either teachers or adults. Building a program with long-term success is getting possible while train mentees and mentors together promote a shared knowledge of both roles and lay the labour for mentees to become strong mentors in the future. During training programme, all participants should: do a list of goals; connect goals to reliable objective; display dates for mentor/mentee meetings; learn to provide critical thinking; assess mentorship progress

Just in case the expectations of some partnerships won’t be a good fit we need to help to have a procedure in order to dissolve dysfunctional relationships and matching mentees up with new mentors.

Purpose of the Study

Research Methods

According to Jean Houssaye’s Pedagogical Triangle, (Houssaye, 1994) the pedagogical space is framed by three essential poles:

Didactics - Teaching relating related as the relationship between the teacher and knowledge, allowing him or her to convey – to teach

Pedagogy - Training connected as the relationship between the teacher and the learner, guaranteeing the training action

Learning - Acquisition related as the relationship that the learner will build by developing knowledge in his or her learning process

Real-life contact is necessary, whether with the teacher or the learner’s peers although there are now many tools that make knowledge acquisition more interactive Learning is a lifelong experience

For a better consideration and evaluate the outcomes this represent a guide for mentoring program design and offers a framework against which programs can be evaluated.

Standard

• The design of the mentoring programs should have certain vision

  • Program size is well- defined

  • Program expectations are clearly specified

  • Available resources are checked

  • The curriculum is design on developing the programe

  • Program expectations and support are accordingly

Standard

• Mentoring affinities appropriate to the circumstances should be determined

Standard

• Mentors must have experience for the mentoring activity

Standard

Standard

Findings

Conclusion

These new training formats ``massive open online courses`` (MOOCs), ``small private online courses`` (SPOCs), ``corporate open online courses`` (COOCs), ``blended learning `` have won over companies that are increasingly swayed by the idea of “hybrid” learning.

Hibrid leaning concept means is planning a strategy and brings initiatives that includes:

• creates a genuine bond among participant - teacher and institution it brings clients a new experience

• fosters a collaborative and participatory approach through peer networks

• provides accordingly and engaging solutions needed

Mentoring is the process by which individuals share their experience, knowledge, and skills with a protege to promote their personal and professional growth. Mentoring can also facilitate change, improvement and professional growth within teaching. Change is inevitable if the mentoring program is to meet the needs of the teachers it serves.

Team must stick to plan and carry out well done activities, to have an organized classroom on developing management skills.

Mentors should be the kind of teacher who increase a positive educational climate for a motivated learning to expect higher expectations from the students even children students with disabilities and special needs. He also must have the ability to reflect on his instructional decisions for short term and long term neither.

Each standard on this research refers to specific critical dimensions. The benchmarks associated with each standard suggest the range of possibilities for addressing the standard and serve to further importance of the standard. Each selected dimension is a range of outcomes that clarifies mentoring programs.

This article has brought information about types of operating mentoring programs in order to formulate a set of mentoring program standards. So there are five identified critical dimensions of a successful mentoring programs based on observation and information dimension that it was collected, as in the Table 1 .

References

• Brandt, R.S. (1987). "On teachers coaching teachers: A conversation with Bruce Joyce." ”Educational Leadership” 44(6) 12-17.
• Dyer, K. (2001). Educational Leadership, 44 (6), 12-17, Relational leadership. School Administrator, 58, 28-30.
• Houssaye, J. (1994). “The relevance of the pedagogical triangle: understanding operating principles of the pedagogical situation”. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). New Orleans, USA
• Perraton, H. (2010). Teacher Education: The Role of Open and Distance Learning, Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
• ***National Educational Law No.1 /2011 – Ministry of Education, Romania (in Romanian)