Section archive - Mentoring & Supervision

The authors explore how differences in cognitive complexity were related to role expectations, conceptions of teaching problems, and the use of evidence for justifying beliefs. They draw on data from a US study of nine mentors and mentees, including mentee scores on the Reasoning about Current Issues (RCI) Test, which offers a measure of cognitive complexity.

This article reports the findings of a review of the international research literature on mentoring beginning teachers. Research identifies a range of potential benefits and costs associated with mentoring. It suggests that the key to maximizing the former and minimizing the latter lies in the realization of a number of conditions for successful mentoring, such as the effective selection and preparation of mentors.

Lack of knowledge and tools to handle the complexity of teachers' work mean that new teachers often feel insecure about their chosen profession. This influences their perspectives on teaching and their whether they wish (or not) to continue in the field.

This review has three goals: (a) to trace the evolution of mentoring programs in the United States in business and academe, (b) to provide insight on the challenges associated with the study of mentoring, and (c) to identify the limited research-based studies of faculty mentoring programs that currently inform the understanding of this professional development practice in American higher education.The findings indicate that the sophistication of research has not advanced over the past decade.