Adaptive expertise and pre-service teacher mentorship
Subject
Abstract
This qualitative study was designed to investigate perceptions of Practicum Supervisors and Teacher Candidates as to how mentorship during the practicum component of pre-service teacher education may foster or hinder the development of adaptive expertise within Teacher Candidates. Two focus groups were conducted, one with Practicum Supervisors, the other with Teacher Candidates, to elicit their understanding of adaptive expertise through analysis of the anecdotes they shared from their direct experience. Participants from both groups were affiliated with Vancouver Island University’s School of Education in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Key findings were that there is a need for increased awareness of adaptive teaching expertise amongst Practicum Supervisors and Teacher Candidates as a valuable professional skill; choice practicum mentorship practices can either increase or restrict the potential for adaptive expertise cultivation; reflexive self-awareness must be targeted as a reflective goal to reveal novel problem parameters; low-risk, supportive learning cultures and contexts must be fostered; and fostering a disposition and open-ness towards adaptive teaching expertise is more suitable during pre-service teacher education as Teacher Candidates cannot be expected to have the amount of experience and domain knowledge necessary to become adaptive teaching experts prior to graduation and induction into the profession.