Abstract:

The initial training of future teachers for pre-primary and primary education is the first step in the professional development process, the responsibility for their training falling on universities (Darling-Hammond, 2017) in many education systems, including the Romanian one. Pedagogical practice is part of the initial training that takes place in partner pre-university educational institutions of application under the supervision of an experienced teacher, called a mentor. The term “mentor” includes all professionals involved in the initial and continuous practical training, in the mentoring and professional development of teachers (from student trainee to experienced teacher). Taking into account the fact that many teachers in schools provide support to students or qualified teachers, we have included them in the meaning of mentor teacher, trainer at the school level (even if this work represents a minor part of their work as teachers). When analyzing mentor training needs, we consider different types of needs: normative (influenced by formal regulations), relational (related to the professional community), expressed (through interest in improving one's own activity), and perceived needs (indicated by mentors as areas of interest in which they might want to develop professionally) (Sava, 2012). Preparation for the mentoring role can be achieved both through formal training programs and in non-formal and informal contexts. Whether they participate in exchanges of experience in communities of practice or other dedicated activities, whether they are informed by articles, attend conferences or access other training opportunities (Loughran, 2014; Lunenberg et al., 2017), mentors show interest in their own training.

The aim of the research was to analyze the professional learning needs of mentors from schools that carry out training activities with future teachers in preschool and primary education, within the framework of pedagogical practice.

The research questions that guided the study were:
(1) What training activities do mentors consider to be useful in the mentoring activity of future teachers for preschool and primary education?
(2) What categories of professional training activities have the practice mentors followed?
(3) In what issues would mentor teachers wish to benefit from training for mentoring students, future teachers?
(4) How much do mentors value research as part of the mentoring role?

The study captures the relatively limited skills and practices of basing teaching approaches on research data, the situation being similar not only for mentors in Romania, but also for those in most of the countries where the InFo-TED study was carried out (Czerniawsky et al., 2017). It is an aspect that requires ameliorative solutions and formative interventions, both in initial and continuous training, being a desideratum also formulated by the European Commission (2021), to strengthen the quality of the teaching act. The fact that mentors are dedicated to mentoring activity, that they support future teachers even though their training is not entirely up to their expectations, leads to the need to rethink the way in which they are trained for a quality mentoring activity, comparable to the Romanian education system.

Keywords:

Training, mentor, role.