Mentoring and Beginning Teachers' Workplace Learning

Mentoring has been the focus of much attention in the recent literature on initial teacher education and induction and as such has become a 'foundation stone' of collaborative endeavours between universities and schools in the facilitation of teacher development. In 1998 some 220 beginning teachers and 245 supervisors and mentors in New South Wales government schools were surveyed and beginning teachers' professional learning observed closely in six case study schools in different settings across the state. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated the relevance of internship to initial teacher education programs and established the importance of mentoring support in beginning teachers' professional learning in the induction year. The case studies also identified key practices, conditions and professional interactions that sustained transmission, transactional and transformational approaches to teacher learning. The complementary qualitative and quantitative methodology provided strong evidence of the importance of the mentoring strategy.