Chapter 2 Homework Exploring effective ways that mentors initially join and plan for professional learning

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Chapter 2: Building Professional Development Relationships with Adults

Summary

Exploring effective ways that mentors initially join and plan for professional learning

relationships with early-childhood teachers is the focus of this chapter. Increasing responsiveness

to and awareness of the whole teacher (as mentee, or protégé) through an examination of

Outline

The chapter supports your growing capacity to

• partner with others for learning;

Building PD

Relationships

with Adults

partner for

learning

join

& plan

evaluate

progress

Learner outcomes

• Students will develop an understanding of how to partner with others to support their

learning.

• Students will explore the many ways to plan for an adult’s professional development,

Suggested teaching activities

1. Partner for Learning

To set the tone for this topic, open your session by reading this famous quote by Jere Pawl and

Maria St. John (1998), “How you are is as important as what you do.”

Then ask participants to reflect on what that statement means to them in the context of working

with children and families. Write down their ideas and ask the group again what might be added

to the list if they considered what’s needed to work with the teachers of young children. Possible

responses include:

• a positive climate based on trust and respect.

Conclude by stating that when this is developed over time, it is referred to as having an

effective, consultative stance (Johnson & Brinamen, 2006) with adults (teachers or parents).

Extension: A follow up small group activity to go deeper into these ideas might be to direct

building a friendship with a colleague.

After giving the group some time to complete this work, direct them to turn to their book and

compare their list with strategies in Table 2.1 that either weaken or promote learning

partnerships. Conclude by asking each group to share a few of their most important comments

with the large group.

2. Partner to Meet Learning Needs

Ask the participants to get into three groups and tell them that they are mentors or coaches from

a local child care support agency. Give each group a different scenario in which they need to

identify the teacher learning needs.

A) A new toddler teacher needs help with child guidance and other routine daily tasks.

Several other toddler teachers in the program are very effective in guiding children and

have been working at this program for over ten years. The mentor assigned to this teacher

is from another part of the state and does not speak the language of many of the families

in the program. All the teachers speak the dominant languages of the enrolled families.

After they have had some time to discuss, then ask the groups to consider what support their

teachers in the scenarios need for their learning needs. Tell them they may use the following

questions to spark conversation.

___________________________________________________________________________

1. Ask: What teacher on-site or in a similar role or program might act as a peer mentor? Does the

mentor understand the cultural context of the program?

_____________________________________________________________________________

Conclude: After each group briefly shares what they discussed, conclude with the statement:

You have helped to work on the question that mentors wrestle with when forming a learning

relationship, “Why is fitting the learning need to the learning response so important?”

Alternative Activity: For the scenarios above, ask participants to role-play the teacher and the

• Would a one-on-one mentoring relationship be helpful to you?

• Do you currently have anyone whom you see as a professional mentor to you?

• Can you describe a current challenge?

• How would you like to get support for your role here?

Purpose: Often, the same mentor is asked to fill all of the different professional needs identified

Other Options to Extend Learning: Look at Table 2.3 – Matching the Learning Need to the

Strategy for Learning and explore the scenarios with your participants. Using these different

scenarios will allow you to examine the various roles of the mentor, coach, and consultant.

3. Join and Plan Together for Building a Learning Relationship

Ask the participants the question. “What does not work to support the building of learning

Notice and consider the consequences of a mentoring process that is:

…trying to quickly solve problems and offer help without first understanding the issues

or contexts.

the current issues.

thinks, feels, and acts in a situation.

…ignoring the influences of culture and community or speaking of them only when

Then ask, “What should a mentor do instead of the less effective approaches?” Collect ideas

from the group and then share ideas from this list from the same Table 2.4 that have not been

mentioned by the participants.

…having a planned first meeting and conveying interest in what is shared.

…avoiding the role of the expert at first and doing a lot of listening and questioning.

…wondering, brainstorming, listening to different points of view, and questioning in

Conclude by reiterating what building a learning relationship requires.

…taking time to build trust, comfort, and a positive climate.

…acting as a safe haven for the teacher to share frustrations and successes.

…establishing a clear purpose or negotiating to be able to answer the simple question,

Why are we doing this?

…considering influences of program, culture, community, and other contexts as assets.

Purpose: Connecting relationship building values with actual mentoring practices is the focus of

this activity.

Reflection Journal: Direct participant to Figure 2.1 – Learning Partnership Asset Checklist.

4. Establish Expectations

Share with participants a five-step process for a mentor to work with a teacher to establish what a

teacher may expect from them.

1. Joining together and creating a clear plan with the understanding of what the teacher and

mentor, or coach, will each do (e.g., teacher observes children, mentor observes teacher

and children);

Ask participants the advantages and disadvantages of going through all the steps in order to gain

more professional knowledge and skills. Ask participants how this process is similar to and

different from the way children construct knowledge.

Purpose: Mentors need to be flexible to support teachers in achieving their goals. The amount of

5. Evaluate Progress

Ask participants to discuss how they know when a mentor-teacher learning relationship has

resulted in progress for the teacher in meeting their goals.

Conclude by sharing these broad indicators of progress in a learning relationship and ask:

Do I see specific evidence that the mentoring process has supported a teacher’s ability to:

• Work with mentors, peers, and colleagues to commit to participating together to discuss

ideas about effective practices and to reflect on actual experiences?

6. Understand Cultural Competence

Put participants into seven groups. Ask each group to consider one of the concepts summarized

and simplified here from the National Association for the Education of Young Children

(NAEYC) Pathways to Cultural Competence Project (QBCCP). Then ask each group to

brainstorm possible responses to the following question:

Concept 1: Children are nested in families.

Concept 2: Identify shared goals among families and staff.

Purpose: Mentoring for cultural competence is complex, ongoing and never finished. One way

Discussion board

If the participants have experience as a mentor, coach or consultant, ask them to think of a time

they worked successfully with an early childhood teacher and respond to these questions. If they

do not have experience in early childhood mentoring, as them to reflect on the skills, knowledge

and abilities needed by a mentor in a learning partnership by thinking of a time they had to teach

an adult something. Another adaptation is to bring in a mentor and have the group interview

them with these questions:

In what ways did you work to:

• get to know and build trust with the teacher (as protégé)?

• encourage information gathering and documentation of the problem or focus of the

teacher’s inquiry?

• be flexible during implementation?

• problem-solve through dialogue and reflective feedback?