REFLECTIVE AND MENTORING PRACTICE - CONDITIONED SEGMENTS OF TEACHING

Abstract

Upon completing their initial education, teachers acquire mostly theoretical knowledge and learn how to teach. Whether a teacher will be good and professional depends on the way he works, on whether he continuously improves his knowledge and his competences. Mentoring practice and a reflective approach to professional work are two important segments of a teacher's work with a reciprocal impact on his experience, knowledge and teacher development. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of mentoring and reflective practice for teacher education and advancement. In order to achieve this goal, we first define the concept of mentoring and its significance for teacher work; we highlight the types of mentoring; we emphasize the benefits of reflective practice in teaching and finally identify common features of teacher mentoring and reflective practice. The conclusion is that these two segments of teaching - mentoring and reflective practice - are the twoskills that experienced,but also future teachers should have.