Exploring the Salient Experiences of Pre-Service Teacher Candidates Who Were Former Volunteer Tutors

Source: Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, Volume 17, Issue 2,
pages 129 - 146 (May 2009).

Teacher candidates were tracked to monitor whether their former tutoring experience influenced their experiences as teacher candidates. Through interviews, email and group discussions, participants reflected on their teacher preparation experiences and their orientations to effective reading and writing instruction. At times, teacher candidates identified pedagogical similarities between their tutoring experiences and teacher education programs. Other times, disparities between the classroom and tutorial instruction settings provoked some candidates to denounce the approaches of their teacher mentors during practica. The authors discuss the need for teacher education programs to assist candidates to assimilate newly acquired pedagogies into existing ones, including those acquired through volunteerism.