Benefits of pupils mentoring student teachers

Key issue addressed by the study  The study looked at a school-university project where pupils acted as mentors for student teachers  Trainee teachers and pupils gained greater understanding of each others’ perspectives

Outcomes for KS4 pupils mentoring student teachers  The pupils: –became more supportive in the classroom –developed an understanding of teachers’ actions and the reasons behind them –gained insight into the ‘behind the scenes’ work of the teacher –reflected on their own and their classmates ‘ attitudes and behaviour

Insights pupils gained about teaching through mentoring  It’s hard because everything is new and different; learning all the names at once, all about the abilities of the pupils, and it’s easy to get lost in the school at first. How much goes into planning and the thought that actually goes into lesson  Pupils can be very rude and can give teachers a hard time but teachers think a lot about their pupils (…) they want to gain respect but not be too fierce or too friendly

Skills pupils gained through being a mentor  Student teachers felt pupils became more: –reliable –approachable –skilled in active listening

Benefits for student teachers  Student teachers: –saw what school and teachers looked like from the pupils’ perspective –became more aware of pupils’ learning needs –became more committed to collaborating with pupils and solving problems together –found the balance between openness and authority

Common subjects for discussion between student teachers included:  class management  discipline matters  the role of the form tutor  assessment  teacher-pupil relationships  what makes a good teacher  homework  bullying, sexism and racism in school

Developing pupil mentors  Pupil mentors and student teachers attended a half-day session at Nottingham University at the start of the project  Two Year 10 pupil mentors worked with each student teacher throughout the 13-week teaching practice

Who were the pupils in the study?  189 Year 10 pupil mentors supported 91 student teachers over six years

How was the information gathered?  The researchers analysed teachers’ and pupils’ questionnaire and interview responses to assess the impact of the programme

How might teachers use this evidence?  Pupils and student teachers discussed a wide range of topics around school improvement, such as discipline and both gained valuable insights  What opportunities are there for you to create a similar forum for open discussion?  You could, for example, involve pupils more in departmental review meetings, or set up mentoring arrangements similar to those in the study

How can school leaders use this evidence?  The mentoring project was carried out between an initial teacher training provider and schools  If you re a training school, would it be valuable setting up a similar scheme for your student teachers?  You could start with a small scale pilot

Follow-up reading  Study reference: Youens, B. and Hall, C. (2006) Incorporating pupil perspectives in initial teacher education – lessons from the Pupil Mentoring Project in Teacher Development, Vol.10, No.2, July 2006, pp. 197 – 206  You might like to read a longer summary of pupil voice, with related teacher case study examples, on the Research of the Month website: Mtopics/pupilvoice/ Mtopics/pupilvoice/

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