13
In this chapter we present some examples of written reflection tools that may be useful in mentoring. Such tools seem to be used to some extent in school mentoring in Scandinavian countries, but they may also be relevant for mentoring in other countries. First, it seems to be quite common that the mentor and mentee establish some kind of written mentoring agreement. This agreement creates a framework for the following mentoring conversations. In addition the mentee can make an “Individual reflection document“. This tool can either be a teaching plan or a personal narrative. These documents are intended to support individual reflection. It is also common that the mentee writes a log regularly which is used to reflect around practicum experiences. The examples in this chapter are mostly from the mentoring of student teachers, but they are also relevant to the mentoring of beginning teachers.
Mentoring agreement
What is a mentoring agreement?
A mentoring agreement is a written plan for collaboration between the mentor and the mentee. Its purpose is to establish and maintain a beneficial collaboration during practicum. When creating the mentoring agreement, it is essential that both parties are open about their expectations. Topics such as punctuality, deadlines, schedules for mentoring, development goals, work effort and mentoring pedagogy are often discussed. Often there will exist written institutional guidelines which have been made by the teacher education institution and practicum schools. These guidelines usually recommend how the agreement should be made. The mentoring agreement should also be revised regularly with follow-up questions such as “will we be able to achieve what we decided in the plan?”
Topics that can be included in a mentoring agreement for school practicum
Below we present some of the areas that are usually covered by a written agreement:
Formal information
There should be some formal information about both mentor and mentee like for instance the student’s name, field of study and the duration of practicum. The minimum information provided about the mentor should be name and contact information (i.e. telephone number, e-mail address etc.).
Mentor’s responsibilities
It´s important that the responsibilities of the mentor are described so that the mentee knows how much follow-up that can be expected. This will ensure that the mentor-mentee relationship has a more formal supportive structure. Some examples are presented below:
– The mentor could say something about the relationship. For instance, that the mentor will look after the student and contribute to the student’s inclusion into the community of colleagues.
– The mentor could outline a possible way of organizing of the mentoring process. The agreement could, for instance, state that it is the mentor’s responsibility to arrange mentoring before and after a classroom lesson. It is also possible to specify approximately how much of the mentee’s teaching the mentor intends