Cambridge Professional Development Qualifications A guide for mentors Contents
Cambridge Professional Development Qualifications A guide for mentors Contents Introduction ........................................................................... 3 Section 1: What you need to know about the PDQs ......................... 4 Section 2: Why learning with and from a mentor is vital . ................... 6 Section 3: What we expect the mentor to do . ................................. 8 Section 4: How to develop your mentoring practice ........................ 11 Conclusion ........................................................................... 27 Bibliography .......................................................................... 28 3 Cambridge Professional Development A Guide for mentors Introduction A mentor is someone who takes on the role of a trusted adviser, supporter, teacher and wise counsel to another person. A mentor adopts a primarily selfless role in supporting the learning, development and ultimate success of another person… mentoring is most effective when focused clearly on the needs, goals and challenges of the person you are mentoring… (Starr, 2014: 3) Every learner in every Cambridge PDQ programme is required to have the continuing support of an experienced and trusted colleague, who acts as their mentor. This guide will help you to prepare for mentoring and to mentor your mentees successfully to meet everyone’s needs and expectations. Terminology We use the following terms in the guide: • PDQ: Cambridge Professional Development Qualifications • Learner: the teacher or leader participating in the PDQ programme • Mentor:* the experienced teacher or leader assigned to provide mentoring support to the learner • Mentee: the learner engaged in the mentoring relationship with the mentor • Candidate: the learner as they engage with PDQ assessment • Programme Leader: the person accredited by Cambridge to design and lead the PDQ programme * NB: We referred to mentors as ‘experienced colleagues’ in the 2015 PDQ syllabuses. From 2016 syllabus onwards we are updating this to ‘mentors’ to clarify the definition and importance of this role. 4 Cambridge Professional Development A Guide for mentors Cambridge Professional Development Qualifications (Cambridge PDQs) The Cambridge PDQs are in-service professional development programmes involving practice-based learning. The qualifications are awarded by Cambridge, and accredited by UCL Institute of Education. Candidates are assessed externally on the basis of their portfolios of evidence of practice, learning and reflection. The PDQs are designed to help practising teachers and leaders to: • engage critically with relevant concepts, principles, theories and international best practices • apply new ideas and approaches in reflective practice in their own teaching and learning context • learn with and from other practitioners • evaluate experiences and outcomes to plan further development. • improve the quality of their teaching and leadership to enhance the quality of their learners’ learning. PDQs are awarded at Certificate and Diploma level in the following different areas of focus, to meet the particular needs of teachers, leaders and schools: • Teaching and Learning • Educational Leadership • Teaching with Digital Technologies • Teaching Bilingual Learners. All PDQ syllabuses share the same design principles and features, e.g. the Diploma consists of three assessed modules, and the first module can be taken on its own as the Certificate. The Cambridge PDQ programme The Cambridge syllabus defines the purpose, aims, learning outcomes, key questions, assessment and grading criteria for each PDQ. You can download syllabus and other essential information from www.cie.org.uk/ pdq The PDQ learning programme is provided by an approved Cambridge Professional Development Centre. This may be a Cambridge school, a training organisation or a national authority. Every Centre must undergo systematic initial and ongoing quality assurance by Cambridge. Key to the success of the PDQs is the Programme Leader at the Centre, who is trained and accredited by Cambridge. The Programme Leader designs the learning programme and leads the teaching and management of the programme. The PDQ programme takes approximately four months for each module. Typically this fits around a school term or semester. The Programme Leader and their team design a programme for the module, aiming for the best balance and sequence of learning activities and experiences. An effective mentor is able to stay flexible to the needs of the mentee in order to offer the appropriate types of assistance in a particular situation. (Starr, 2014: xi) Section 1: What you need to know about the PDQs 5 Cambridge Professional Development A Guide for mentors …talent expresses itself differently in every individual. We need to create environments where every person is inspired to grow creatively… (Robinson and Aronica, 2009: xiii) • Guided learning involves contact time with learners, in sessions designed and led by the programme team, so that they have specific guidance to achieve the learning outcomes, e.g. workshops, seminars and tutorials. • Individual learning involves learning time spent by the individual outside of guided learning sessions, e.g. reading, research and reflective writing. • Collaborative learning involves learning by groups of learners outside of guided learning, and without supervision of a member of the programme team, e.g. discussions, peer observation and study lessons. • Work-based learning involves learning in school, focused on practice, e.g. mentoring, gaining feedback from colleagues, observing and interviewing colleagues, activities to help candidates complete their portfolio for assessment. A Diploma programme comprises Modules 1, 2 and 3. So it involves 360 hours of learning and preparation. Support from school leadership is essential for the success of the PDQ programme. For example, they will: • allow time for guided learning sessions and mentoring • nurture collaborative learning • encourage the progress and achievement of their PDQ learners • integrate PDQs into their schools’ professional development culture. 6 Cambridge Professional Development A Guide for mentors Section 2: Why learning with and from a mentor is vital The spiral of professional learning in a PDQ programme depends particularly on three processes: • observation • reflection • learning with and from mentors. These processes work together. It is crucial that learners receive feedback from being observed to inform their continuous reflection on their learning experiences. Observation and reflection are much more effective with the support of a mentor. The mentor develops a learning relationship with the mentee, supporting them during their work-based learning to make the most of the learning experience and to achieve the Cambridge qualification. The mentor understands the essential principles of the PDQ, and provides helpful advice to their mentee(s), sharing their own experiences and knowledge. Your experience will enable you to question and challenge your mentee(s) and encourage them to reflect on their learning and experience and what it means for their future approach to teaching and leadership. You help to broaden and deepen the understanding of concepts and practice. You enable your mentee to take control of their own professional development: encouraging them to be confident, responsible, reflective, innovative and engaged. A Japanese proverb says that one day with a good mentor is worth one thousand days of diligent study. With a good mentor, teachers are supported, encouraged and inspired as they grow in their profession… (Carol Bartell in Murray, 2014: 135) 7 Cambridge Professional Development A Guide for mentors Sir Ken Robinson (2009: 179–185) highlights four ways in which a mentor supports a mentee: • Recognition ‘Mentors recognise the spark of interest or delight and can help an individual drill down to the specific components of the discipline that match that individual’s capacity and passion…’ • Encouragement ‘Mentors lead us to believe that we can achieve something that seemed improbable or impossible to us before we met them. They don’t allow us to succumb to self-doubt for too long, or the notion that our dreams are too large for us. They stand by to remind us of the skills we already possess and what we can achieve if we continue to work hard…’ • Facilitating ‘Mentors can help lead us… by offering us advice and techniques, paving the way for us, and even allowing us to falter a bit while standing by to help us recover and learn from our mistakes…’ • Stretching ‘Effective mentors push us past what we see as our limits. Much as they don’t allow us to succumb to self-doubt, they also prevent us from doing less with our lives than we can. A true mentor reminds us that our goal should never be to be ‘average’ at our pursuits…’ Mentoring typically involves an experienced professional supporting a less experienced colleague. However, this does not mean that the mentee is always a novice teacher or leader; in fact teachers and leaders taking part in PDQ programmes often have many years of experience. The PDQ programme is an opportunity to refresh and develop thinking and practice, to explore new ideas and approaches. Becoming a learner, perhaps for the first time in a long time, can be challenging – as a mentor, you can provide reassurance and wise counsel. The teacher or leader who has asked you to be their mentor believes that you have sufficient depth of experience and expertise to be trusted to become a mentor. But successful mentoring is not only about experience and expertise; it’s even more to do with personal qualities and inter-personal skills. The most important of these is to be able to take an interest in uploads/Management/ guide-for-mentors.pdf
Documents similaires
-
26
-
0
-
0
Licence et utilisation
Gratuit pour un usage personnel Attribution requise- Détails
- Publié le Apv 16, 2021
- Catégorie Management
- Langue French
- Taille du fichier 8.0671MB