Across Europe, the issue of the quality of teaching and its impact on the pupil attainment has assumed an increasing importance in maintaining a growing and competing economy. A variety of initiatives have appeared both at the national and European level, focusing on the competence of teachers and the ways to improve their work. However, the mentoring between teachers is one of these areas where school leaders and teachers have not enough expertise. Therefore our Project “Mentoring between teachers in secondary and high schools” (MENTOR) will support the growth and professional development of new teachers in secondary and high schools through mentoring. The strategic aims of the Project are to ensure beginning teachers build an understanding of curriculum, standards, pedagogy, and how to meet student needs. It is to facilitate the natural development of beginning teachers by supporting them in their own settings and ensuring they have the assistance they need to be successful in their everyday job. The main objectives of the MENTOR Project: - To organize the desk research about the methods (models) of mentoring, especially between teachers in secondary and high schools in EU countries. - To elaborate the method (model) of mentoring between teachers in secondary and high schools. - To organize a set of Training for Teachers Mentors (TTM) aimed at familiarizing teachers in the mentoring skills using an on-line/blended approach. - To test delivered mentoring method in the secondary and high schools. The Project's consortium is built from 6 institutions: - universities: from Lisbon/Portugal and Sibiu/Romania (Educational Science Faculty - the Teacher Training Department is conducting a postgraduate program "Mentoring for teaching career", accredited by Ministry of Education in Romania); - educational authorities, which are responsible for all state secondary schools in Lamia/Greece, which is a department of the Greek Ministry of Education and Kutahya/Turkey which is a department of the Turkish Ministry of Education; - teachers training center (KCZIA/Poland), who has experience not only in preparing the trainings for teachers but also in managing and dissemination of the project activities; - consulting and research company INVESLAN/Spain, who was involved in a project “INTERGEN: Intergenerational Mentoring”, during years 2010 to 2012. One of the key aims of the MENTOR Project is to include all the target groups, i.e.: Beginning teachers (mentees), Teachers mentors and School Leaders and other school staff, into the active implementation of the Project. It particularly pays attention to the testing phase in selected schools. Mentors will be previously trained under prepared and organized trainings (TTM), they will also carry the responsibility to help and take care of the Beginning Teachers. The rules and arrangements of the testing phase will be agreed with and signed by the School Leaders; they will also actively contribute while preparing the reports of the results of implementing the method in their schools. The pupils will take part in activities and lessons prepared by the Beginning Teachers under the eye of the Teachers Mentors. Another crucial Project activities are: developing the Research Database and The Handbook, and dissemination activities (developing a Project Info Pack). In our Project we will use a Project Management Methodology (PMM) to measure progress and track project tasks thereby improving our project’s success. A project methodology tells us what we have to do, to manage our projects from start to finish, including the post-implementation review. It describes thoroughly every step in the project life-cycle. PMM is needed to manage and track the project, including any risks, so potential problems can be identified quickly and corrective action taken. The mentoring promises potential benefits (results) in at least the following three areas: 1. New teacher induction - to help transition beginning teachers into the classroom and acculturate them to the specific school and local setting in which they will work. 2. Career enhancement - to provide an avenue for leadership, public recognition, and reward for skilled veteran teachers who serve their schools and districts as mentors, professional developers, and/or contributors to instructional improvement. 3. Professional development and program innovation - to build capacity for the school and the local program of innovation and the local program of innovation and to guide local education reform. Finally, our Project activities and the results they will produce are designed to sustain and bring potential long term benefits, such as: - Decreasing the number of new teacher leaving their profession. - The exchange of good practices, experiences and inspirations between the teachers-mentees and teachers-mentors from different countries. - Implementing the Mentoring Model in different countries and the dissemination of the Mentoring idea.
The project “Mentoring between teachers in secondary and high schools” was a three-years project, taking place between 01.09.2014 and 31.08.2017. The aim of the project was to elaborate an innovative method of mentoring between teachers in secondary schools. The project was implemented by six partner institutions: - Krakowskie Centrum Doskonalenia Kadr Oświatowych (teacher training company) as a department of Krakowskie Centrum Zarządzania i Administracji Sp. z o.o. from Krakow – Poland (coordinator), - DIEFTHYNSI DEFTEROVATHMIAS EKPEDEFSIS NOMOU FTHIOTIDAS (educational authorities in Fthiotidas region) from Lamia – Greece, - XXI INVESLAN, S.L. (consulting, research and adult education company) from Bilbao – Spain, - INSTITUTO UNIVERSITARIO DE LISBOA (university) from Lisbon – Portugal, - UNIVERSITATEA LUCIAN BLAGA DIN SIBIU (university) from Sibiu – Romania, - KUTAHYA IL MILLI EGITIM MUDURLUGU (educational authorities in Kutahya region) from Kutahya – Turkey. Within the project’s implementation: - the questionnaire research was conducted, diagnosing the state of awareness of mentoring between teachers among teachers and headmasters of the secondary schools, combined with needs analysis towards this kind of teachers professional development, - the desk research was done about the methods (models) of mentoring, especially between teachers in secondary and high schools in EU countries and beyond (including the USA, Australia and New Zealand), - the method (model) of mentoring between teachers in secondary and high schools was elaborated and described in the Handbook “The method (model) of mentoring between teachers in secondary and high schools” with the Supplement comprising of additional texts, - a set of training materials were prepared and gathered in The Training Kit – “Manual: Training for Teachers Mentors”, and the pilot Trainings for Teachers Mentors (TTM) were organized in each partner country, - the mentoring method was tested in the chosen secondary and high schools during the school year 2016/2017, - the Guidelines - “How to implement mentor model in the school. – Tips for the schools” were elaborated on the basis of the experiences from the testing phase at schools, - there were organized and implemented different dissemination activities aimed at promoting the elaborated mentoring between teachers model in the partner countries and other EU countries, including promotional seminars in the partner countries, final international conference in Lamia (Greece), as well as the activities aimed at disseminating the Memorandum of Understanding, which describes the meaning of the mentoring for the professional development of teachers. The results of the project and its impact could be seen in the following areas: 1. Helping the beginning teachers in faster adaptation in their new working environment, that is the school, and in the same time in better integration with the other teachers, faster adjustment to the role of the teacher, and shaping better relations with the students’ parents and families, as well as the local society. 2. Development of the experienced teachers, who could use their knowledge and experience while mentoring their beginning colleagues. 3. Through the professional development of the teachers, both the beginning and experienced (mentors), the schools enlarge their potential to be innovative environments of education. The elaborated model of mentoring between teachers has a universal character and could be used in the primary and secondary schools in all European countries, despite the differences in educational systems. All project’s products connected with the mentoring between teachers method, which are: - Needs Analysis Report, - The Research Database, - Handbook - “The method (model) of mentoring between teachers in secondary and high schools” with the Supplement, - Training Kit – “Manual: Training for Teachers Mentors”, - Guidelines - “How to implement mentor model in the school. – Tips for the schools”, - Memorandum of Understanding. are published and available on the project’s website http://edu-mentoring.eu in English language, and the Handbook, Training Kit, Guidelines and Memorandum of Understanding are also translated into the partners’ languages. The access to the products is free, and the rules of the use are described by the open license Creative Commons 4.0.