Reflective Mentoring Practices

Abstract

Motivated by the need for a training that would promote cooperating teachers' reflective skills in their mentoring roles to support the professional development of teacher candidates during practice teaching, this chapter focuses on the implementation of an online training program for the cooperating teachers who supervise the teacher candidates in an English language teaching program of an English-medium state university in Istanbul, Türkiye. The study aimed at revealing the reflections of cooperating teachers on their own mentoring perceptions, skills, and practices in the twelve-week training. The analysis of the data obtained from the cooperating teachers' written tasks showed that the new experience of the training program increased their awareness of their own teaching and mentoring practices. It is indicated in the findings that the tasks deepened cooperating teachers' understanding of mentoring skills such as how to establish rapport and engage in a fruitful observation and feedback process with the teacher candidates.