Designing the Montessori Coaching Tool Elementary Rubric for Early-Career Professional Development

Becoming a competent Montessori Elementary guide is a complex process, so we are developing the Montessori Coaching Tool Elementary (MCT-EL) rubric to describe teaching-practice expectations for self-reflection and formative feedback during the critical early period in a teacher’s development. The purpose of this article is to share results from a small-scale, online survey collecting both qualitative and quantitative feedback on the rubric from experienced Montessori Elementary teacher educators. The rubric’s content was based on Maria Montessori’s writings and welldocumented Montessori practices, which we translated to specific teacher behaviors and developmental progressions. We wanted to gauge the MCT-EL rubric’s usefulness and appropriateness from the perspective of experts who have significant depth of experience mentoring new teachers. The rubric was not developed to be used for performance evaluation, promotion, or retention but rather for early-career Montessori teachers’ self-reflection. It provides a framework for coaching conversations between the early-career Montessori teacher and a Montessori mentor. Results from the study identified overall support for use of the MCT-EL rubric with developing teachers, along with specific recommendations for revisions, additions, and deletions. Using a thorough review of the data, we developed a refined MCT-EL rubric, which is provided in Appendix B and is available for use by interested practitioners in the field.

Mentoring New Teachers and Introducing Them to Administrative Skills

This paper examined benefits of mentoring to the teachers especially the new teachers in the school system. The concept of mentoring was discussed vis-a-vis other related terms. The qualities of a mentor teacher were elucidated. How to start a mentoring programme as well as the four phases of mentoring relationship were fully highlighted and discussed. The “new teachers” to be introduced to administrative skills as identified by the paper are: those not trained in the teaching profession, those trained but entering into full time teaching for the first time, those trained teachers but not experienced in teaching (1 – 4 years) and those already teaching but found teaching uninteresting. The skills on which the new teachers can be mentored includes: school records keeping, class(room) management, teaching effectiveness and efficiency, school community relations, school plant management and evaluation and assessment of students. Benefits of mentoring to old and new teachers were highlighted. Mentoring is one of the best reforms in the education system and a very cost effective programme which will make the teachers to be the best they could in the school system and in the teaching profession.

Educative mentoring: a way forward

Purpose – In recent years mentoring has been promoted as an essential, yet complex, new teacher induction dynamic. Mentors generally develop their knowledge of this role in isolation and in situ, and despite extensive research in the field few studies investigate how mentors learn. Therefore it is important to continue to examine the complex aspects of learning to mentor. The purpose of this paper is to focus on understanding the knowledge, attitudes and skills required by mentors to simultaneously focus on their own learning, new teachers’ learning and student learning. Design/methodology/approach – In this New Zealand study the authors examined a pilot programme aimed at shifting mentoring practices to an educative model. Through a two-year professional development intervention, 22 participant mentors inquired into, analysed and documented their practice. Data were gathered through learning conversations, action research documentation and reflections. They were analysed using qualitative methodology. Findings – Evident was a shift in mentoring practice from a focus on the transmission of knowledge-for-practice to inquiry into knowledge-of-practice. Change was observed after sustained and serious engagement with evidence about mentoring practices. However the shifts did not come easy, nor were they assured. Research limitations/implications – This study is not without limitations. Transferability is potentially problematic. The pilot study was well resourced, therefore expecting the implementation and outcomes to transfer to other contexts without similar resourcing maybe unrealistic. Practical implications – The findings contributed to the development of a mentoring curriculum and national guidelines for mentoring new teachers. Originality/value – While the findings emerged from a situated context, the theoretical and practice issues reported are matters for international attention, particularly the matter of transitioning from a well-practiced, efficient teacher mentor to an adaptive educative mentor.