Mentoring im fachbezogenen Schulpraktikum : Analyse von Reflexionsgesprächen

Abstract

This PhD thesis deals with reflective dialogues about biology lessons, students give during teaching practice. The students (mentees) reflect with mentors, who have different expertise: University lectors (university mentors), who implement lectures accompanying the teaching practice, school teachers (school mentors) and fellow students (peers). The aim of this study is to analyze mentoring dialogues (reflective dialogues) held to reflect the biology lessons given by the students, and to analyze the mentoring relationships. Therefore tapes of reflective dialogues were recorded and interviews with the students were conducted and analyzed with qualitative content analysis by Mayring. The following research questions shall be answered by this study: In which manner do student teachers from the University of Bremen reflect their own biology lessons during a teaching practice with their mentors and peers? In which manner is mentoring realized during a teaching practice in schools by student teachers? The study consists of three parts: In a first step, a model for analyzing reflective dialogues about biology lessons, which is based on an extensive literature review (pilot study), is developed in a mixed inductive and deductive way. The basic empirical data comprises reflective dialogues by five students. The theoretical base of the model consists of theories about reflections in the context of teacher education, about professional knowledge of biology teachers and about mentoring processes during teacher education. In a second step, (case study) twelve cases (mentoring relationships between seven students and different mentors or peers) are analyzed. Therefore reflective dialogues and interviews held with the students are evaluated. In a third step (in-depth study), the mentoring relationships between two students and their mentors and peers are examined more deeply. The data prove that these mentoring relationships develop different potential regarding the student´s professional development. For example in the reflective dialogues with peers, the integration of pedagogical knowledge turns out well. Especially orientations to teaching and self-efficacy are addressed in these dialogues. Furthermore, the students appreciate planning and conducting lessons with their peers. According to the students, the school mentors also helped planning their lessons and their positive and encouraging feedback has great value to them. In the reflective dialogues with the school mentors, references to biological pedagogical content knowledge as well as references to pedagogical knowledge are created. The focus of these dialogues lies on evaluating the conducted lessons. From student´s perspective the university mentors contribute to the student´s professional development by giving sophisticated feedback on their lessons. This assessment is reflected in the analysis of the reflective dialogues. It shows that the integration of biological pedagogical content knowledge works well. Additionally, alternative possibilities how to design the lessons are often topics of these dialogues. This is one attribute of a deep reflection. Conclusions for teacher education: Mentoring dialogues held with the different mentors complement each other well. The training of the school mentors should be conducted in close cooperation with the university lectors which are responsible for the university lectures accompanying the teaching practice. Network meetings for the exchange of aims and contents of mentoring dialogues (reflective dialogues) should be conducted more often. The feedback by peers should be a fixed component of mentoring processes.