Mentors' Written Lesson Appraisals: The Impact of Different Mentoring Regimes on the Content of Written Lesson Appraisals and the Match with Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of Content

Source: Journal of Education for Teaching, Volume 35, Issue 2, pages 133 – 143 (May 2009).

Written lesson appraisals (WLAs) by mentors 30 of pre-service teachers experiencing two different mentoring regimes in an English university teacher education program were selected for analysis. The WLAs were analyzed for their length and content using professional knowledge categories derived from pre-service teacher perceptions of the content of WLAs. The professional knowledge categories were 'topic-specific pedagogy', 'class management' and 'generic issues'. Statistically significant differences were found in the length of WLAs written by mentors from the two mentoring regimes and in the content of all professional knowledge categories. Pre-service teacher perceptions of content are similar to the actual content of the WLAs but the degree of emphasis was different. Implications for the training and continuing professional development of mentors, pre-service teachers and others who receive or provide WLAs are identified.