Gulcin Cosgun: Mentoring the Experienced a Rare but Tasty Treat

Mentoring the experienced: a
rare but tasty treat
Gulcin Cosgun – Özyeğin University, İstanbul, Turkey
Prof. Derin Atay – Bahçeşehir University, İstanbul, Turkey
©Eaquals Eaquals International Conference | Prague | 26-28 April 2018 #eaquals18prague

Mentoring...
©Eaquals #eaquals18prague
(Anderson & Shannon, 1988, p.29).
Digital image taken from pinterest.com
“a nurturing process in which a more experienced person, serving as a role
model, teaches, sponsors, encourages, counsels and befriends a less
experienced person for the purpose of promoting the latter’s professional
and/or personal development”

Image taken from https://magoosh.com/praxis/magoosh-comics-things-you-learn-in-your-first-year-of-teaching/
©Eaquals Eaquals International Conference, Prague, 26 – 28 April 2018 www.eaquals.org 3

Mentoring programs for
experienced teachers are rare.
the number of
years in
teaching
profession
automatic
development of
the expertise of
teachers

Even if teachers are experienced, lack of
support from administration and
colleagues is cited as a factor in
experienced teacher attrition.
(Kersaint et al., 2007; Tye & O’Brien, 2002).

It’s because...
when experienced teachers start working in a new
school system, they share similar needs with the
beginning teachers:
• discovering available resources,
• learning the procedures of the new school,
• getting used to the new student profile
• adjusting to curricular differences
(Boreen, Niday & Johnson, 2003, p.109)

A model implemented with
experienced teachers in Turkey
What are the perceived impacts of a mentoring
program on experienced Turkish EFL teachers at
tertiary level?

SETTING
An English preparatory school in an English-medium
university in Turkey

Mentoring program at the
school
• has been offered since the fourth year of the school.
• is mandatory.
• is designed for experienced teachers who are new to the
institution but not to the profession.
• is a one-year program.
• is run by mentors who also work as instructors at the
school.
• aims to ensure a smooth beginning to the year and
maintaining the standards of teaching and learning high,
which also indirectly contributes to the mentees’
professional development.

Mentoring program at the
school
• includes different components which are social activities,
observations, individual meetings with mentors and idea
sharing sessions.
• allows the mentors to use differentiated methods considering
the needs of mentees rather than imposing a pre-planned rigid
program for all since the aim is the same: to develop teachers’
competencies systematically.
• involves a formative and summative evaluation to evaluate the
effectiveness of the components and take actions.

PARTICIPANTS
12 teachers
Table. Demographic information of thementees
Gender Nationality Education Years of Lang.
Teaching Exp
TEFL Certificate Age
F % F % F % F % F % F %
F
M
10
2
83.3
16.7
Turkish
Others
10
2
83.3
16.7
BA
MA
6
6
50
50
3-5
6-8
Over
8
5
3
4
41.7
25
33.3
None
Holds
a
certific
ate
7
5
58.3
41.7
27-29
30-32
33-35
5
4
3
41.7
33.3
25

RESEARCH DESIGN AND
DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
• A phenomenological approach
• Semi-structured interviews

DATA ANALYSIS
• Through inductive content analysis (Miles &
Huberman, 1994): identifying the central themes
capturing the main ideas regarding the research
question

FINDINGS
Two central themes emerged from the analysis:
- mentoring as a way of professional development
- mentoring as a way of personal development

1. Mentoring as a way of
professional development
Teachers reported that the mentoring program:
- gave them necessary input and helped them to
become aware of their practices,
- enabled them reflect on the effectiveness of
their practices and change them in order to
cater for the needs of the students in the new
school culture
- improved their knowledge

• “...there is a great feedback system here. Observation cycle is
quite planned and systematic. So, I am very happy and I feel
that I am reflecting on things and I improve my lessons as well.
I can see the improvements.” (Participant D)
• “I had observations before but I cannot say that I got really
proper feedback on my performance. Now especially after the
observation feedback here I can say that it will work a lot
because I have really gained awareness...” (Participant E)
• “Actually the post discussion meeting was perfect. I learned
many things to improve my teaching and I really appreciate that
because we are all in the stage of learning and we will continue
though we are experienced…” (Participant H).

Teachers reported that the program had
positive impacts of on their teaching
practices on different areas:
echoing, effective planning, vocabulary
teaching, checking comprehension and
making smoother transitions between
activities

• “Definitely it (the mentoring program) changed my teaching practices. I try to stop
myself from echoing. This is the biggest thing I pay attention to ... Another
problem in my teaching was staging. I received that feedback that the activities
could have been staged in a better way. Now, I try to plan my lessons in a better
way for that reason.” (participant J)
• “I changed the way I teach vocabulary after the observation... I received the
feedback that I need to check learning after teaching the vocab items... Now, I ask
concept-checking questions to ensure full comprehension.” (Participant C)
• “…I changed a lot of things. For instance, I started asking for justification for the
comprehension questions in my reading lessons. And I realize that students learn
better in that way…” (Participant H)
• “…I think I learn from it. After feedback I already started correcting some things. I
now pay more attention to thematic content in my lessons. I also try to make
smooth transitions between the stages in my lessons.” (Participant G)

2.Mentoring as a way of
personal development
A positive impact on the self-confidence
was reported by all the teachers by
• helping teachers to become more
familiar with the context
• enabling them feel more comfortable
since they know what to do and how to
do in case of problems.

• “Now I am aware of all the parts of the
assessment here so now I feel myself more
confident than the beginning. And now I am
much more familiar than before…”
(Participant C)
• “I now that there might be some problems
but I am now confident and I know what to
do, how to do for those problems.”
(Participant B)

Factors boosting
teachers’ confidence
Three factors creating a positive
impact on teachers’ confidence were
identified during the data analysis:
- reduced stress
- development in skills and
competence
- opportunities for learning about the
school system and culture.

Reduced stress
due to nature of the relationships between
the mentors and the mentees:
Three of the participants (25%) stated that
the mentors were very helpful.
Five of the teachers (41.66%) reported that
mentors behaved in a very friendly manner
rather than patronizing, criticizing or being
offensive and didactic.

Opportunities for learning
and developing skills
Once teachers realized that they improved
their knowledge and teaching practices,
they felt more confident in what they were
doing:
“I’ve realized many things about myself
that I didn’t know before. So, having
learned about such things, having
discovered myself, I feel enthusiastic. I
feel confident” (Participant J).

Opportunities for learning
about the school system
and culture
When teachers learnt more about the school
system and culture, they felt more comfortable:
“I feel more confident because I am accustomed
to the system. I feel I’ve been working here for
ages and now I am more confident and happier.
At the very beginning it was a bit stressful
because there were lots of things to consider.
After the mid module now I am confident …”
(Participant D).

IMPLICATIONS
Institutions should:
• provide opportinities for experienced teachers for ongoing professional
development and improvement of practice thorugh a facilitated mentoring
program.
• make sure that mentees have a say in their development and guide them in
this process in a systematic way through planning it with their mentees.
• choose mentors who have the necessary competence and skills to conduct
a relationship fostering mutual trust and increased intimacy as well as to
fulfill the psychosocial functions including guiding, confirmation, and
counseling.
• help teachers own the process rather than causing them to feel that it is for
the benefit of the institution.
• create opportunities for mentees to reflect on events and learn from their
past successes and failures through follow-up actions.

REFERENCES
• Anderson, E. M. & Shannon, A. L. (1988). Towards a
conceptualization of mentoring. Journal of Teacher Education,
38-42.
• Boreen, J., Niday, D. & Johnson, M. K. (2003). Mentoring cross
boundaries: Helping beginning teachers succeed in
challenging situations. The USA: Stenhouse Publishers.
• Kersaint, G., Lewis, J., Potter, R., & Meisels, G. (2007). Why
teachers leave: Factors that influence retention and
resignation. Teaching And Teacher Education: An International
Journal Of Research And Studies, 23(6), 775-794.
• Miles, M.B. & Huberman, A.M. (1994) An expanded sourcebook.
Qualitative data analysis. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication.

ANY QUESTIONS?

Gulcin Cosgun: Mentoring the Experienced a Rare but Tasty Treat

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