Getting in step to improve the quality of in-service teacher learning through mentoring

Mentoring has been widely recognized as an important aspect of the professional preparation of beginning teachers. How mentoring is viewed bears important implications for how mentoring is to be practiced and experienced. This study investigated the views of mentoring held by mentors, mentored in-service teachers and university teachers in a mentoring scheme initiated by a university in Hong Kong. Ten pairs of mentors and mentored in-service teachers and three university teachers participated in in-depth individual interviews designed to explore their views of mentoring with respect to five themes: mentor selection and preparation; mentor roles and responsibilities; mentor-mentee relationships; the mentoring programme; and school-university relationships. The findings show that the dynamic interaction between mentors, mentored in-service teachers and university teachers shaped the learning opportunities for the mentored in-service teachers. This paper argues that teaching practice and mentored learning to teach play an important role in in-service teachers' professional preparation. To strengthen in-service teacher learning, key players in the mentoring scheme should attain a shared vision of mentoring for in-service teachers and work together to create an integrated curriculum for the learning of in-service teachers.