Research/Articles,abstracts

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Mentor in Cyberspace: Developing Interactive On-Line Training and Support

Simon Walker,
School of Post Compulsory Education and Training,
The University of Greenwich, UK.
November 1999.

 

This paper was presented as part of the CEDEFOP TTnet workshop 'Open and distance learning and enhancing the professional skills and qualifications of trainers'.

This paper can also be downloaded as a Word Version 6.0 compatible/Windows 95 document

• Abstract
• Background
• Rationale For The Research
• Findings
• Project Objectives and Scope
• Framework for the Design
• Approaches to Learning Theory
• Results of Initial Iterative Evaluation
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

 

 

 

Abstract

Emerging trends in information and communication technologies (ICTs), coupled with national government initiatives to use ICT and widen participation in lifelong learning (in the case of the UK the influential Dearing, Higginson and Kennedy reports) have created a framework for supporting an increasing community of participants in education and training. This paper examines how a project for training and supporting mentors of student-teachers was undertaken and suggests that an integration of technologies with a balanced approach to learning theory may offer possibilities to the mentor-trainer working in the Post 16 Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.

 
 

Background

The School of Post Compulsory Education and Training at the University of Greenwich trains approximately 250 student-teachers each year on its full-time pre-service Post-graduate certificate programme (PGCE). The programme lasts for two semesters. Student-teachers divide their time between the University and a work placement at a VET institution. These institutions are spread across a wide geographical area in the South and South East of England. Some of them have 'partner' status and, as well as delivering part of the programme, provide work placements for up to twenty student-teachers. Others provide fewer work placements (in some cases a single work placement may be provided) and take no part in the academic delivery of the programme.

From the beginning of Semester One, each student is assigned to a subject mentor in the VET institution. The subject mentor may work in a school, a college of Further Education, a training organisation or a higher education institution, such as a University. Mentors may be either full or part-time teachers, heads of department or middle managers and generally have a high status in their institution. The common factor is that all mentors work with the post 16+ age group.
 

The role of the PGCE subject mentor is multifaceted, and consists of six broad activities whose main goal is the professional development of the student-teacher.

1. The mentor inducts the student-teacher to the institution through introductions, meetings & observations.
   
   
2. They support, advise and guide the student teacher and monitor their progress.
   
   
3. They liase with the student-teacher's personal tutor at the University.
   
   
4. They set up opportunities for the student teacher to teach.
   
   
5. They assess the performance of the student-teacher in the workplace over a set period of time.
   
   
6. They help the student-teacher to develop 'professional' attitudes in working with other staff and students.

Managers in the VET institutions appoint members of staff who they believe will make good subject mentors. The likelihood is that mentors will have had no basic training in this role and therefore little experience to draw upon, besides being a teacher. We consider it crucial to offer mentor training and support.

 

Rationale For The Research

The diversity, location and different types of work placement inhibit the consistency of mentor training across the programme. In many of the partner colleges, either a 'college link' person or a University tutor may deliver training in one-off group workshops or in an individual meeting. The University supports these activities by sending all mentors a handbook. If mentors come from non-partner institutions, the School of PCET offers a single training session in Semester one at the University. The University pays the mentor's institution a small fee for contact time with the student-teacher but this does not specifically include payment for time or expenses to attend mentor training sessions. If mentors wish to attend the training session, they usually do so at their own expense. Student-teachers, personal tutors and subject mentors have expressed a general sense of dissatisfaction in the level of mentor training and support.

We have identified limitations with the current system of mentor training:

• Clashes in the timetable between University tutors, link tutors and mentors make it difficult to find a common time for training and support
  
  
• It is relatively easy to provide training to a large group of mentors from a single institution but costly and difficult to provide training to a single mentors from a number of different institutions in a wide geographical area. 
  
  
• The increasing workload of staff in partner institutions, coupled with changes in their contractual agreements, has meant that attendance at a single mentor training session at the beginning of Semester One , often their busiest time, now features low on their list of priorities. 
  
  
• At the University, tutor hours available for mentor training and support have been consistently reduced

It became clear that we needed to undertake research to understand the impact of these limitations and discover ways in which we might improve on our ability to train and support workplace mentors.

 

Findings

In 1996/7 initial research was carried out with 117 student-teachers and 10 University tutors.

It found that almost a half of student teachers and 9 University tutors considered the mentor to be inadequately prepared by the University for the student/mentor relationship.

These results made it imperative to look at other more flexible and open ways of developing and supporting mentors that would supplement the existing system; such a system would need to be independent of time and location. We took a pragmatic, long-term view that if we were to develop a technological system which used information and communications technology (ICT), we would have to ensure mentors willingness to use it.

Further research was conducted with 70 new and existing mentors across a range of institutions. It set out to examine their level of knowledge of IT, particularly multimedia, to determine whether they would use digital technology for their own training, and to explore what they considered to be of high priority for mentor training, i.e what they perceived their needs to be (see appendix A & B).

 

Project Objectives and Scope

The findings from the mentor research indicated that the majority of mentors would use IT, although we identified a number of constraints with this result. Some were institutional, such as the limitations of the technical specification of equipment provided by colleges (processor speed, CD-ROM drives, soundcards, the ability to play video, etc). Others were personal constraints, such as their limited knowledge of IT and their lack of confidence in using the computer.

At the time, we considered hybrid interactive multimedia (interactive multimedia with on-line links) as the most suitable tool to develop and support mentoring processes, such as thinking about their role, creative responses to supporting student teachers, self-reflection, problem solving and the development of professional attitudes & approaches.

In 1997, with a small amount of internal funding and some Comenius funding, the Mentor in Cyberspace project was conceived with the goal of supplementing existing mentor training and support. Interactive multimedia on CD-ROM with embedded links to a University of Greenwich's On-Line Campus (OLC) Mentor page was chosen as the most appropriate vehicle for this.

At the start of the project only a small number of academic institutions which were not universities had developed individual internet access for their staff. However we considered the lead-in time for the project to be sufficiently long, so that by the end of the project, mentors would be on-line and able to utilise the range of tools available on the OLC.

 

Framework for the Design

There is no substantial proof to suggest that a trained mentor is more effective than an untrained one (Jowett 1998). However training does enhance an understanding of the stages of a mentor-mentee relationship, knowledge of the mentoring process, and stimulates critical reflection of professional practice. Malderez and Bodoczky (1998) take the image of the iceberg (fig1) and draw a parallel between the tip, which is in the air and represents the visible 'good professional', and the main body of the iceberg, which lays unseen and represents all that the professional engages in as an expert in their subject and as a mentor. The submerged part represents the mentor's thinking, planning, and engagement in process, which draw upon their understanding, knowledge, values, feelings and attitudes. The mentor's ability to respond to the student teacher's professional development hinges on the understanding of their role and on their own development as mentors.

The challenge for designing the training and support of workplace mentors is considered in these two aspects. Firstly, defining and clarifying their role and identifying possible points of conflict (expectations of student teachers, level and type of work involved, method of assessment, etc.,) and secondly, calling on mentors to make their experience, knowledge and skills explicit so they can share it with their mentee.

fig 1

Jowett (1998) states that more experienced mentors change their ideas and practice in response to their previous experience, creating a need to reflect on practice more deeply. The means of facilitating this development is through discussion and feedback with other interested parties i.e. other mentors and personal tutors. The development of support networks is a way of sharing experience and good practice.

The design of the interactive tool attempts to develop understanding, draw out experience, support practical activities with resources and enable mentors to discuss their practice with others.

 

Approaches to Learning Theory

Boyle (1997) identifies two basic approaches to the design of computer based learning systems. The first, Instructional Systems Design (ISD), represents a coherent strategy for the design of learning environments. Based upon the work of Skinner and Gagne, it proposes a standard method with three main elements.

1. Before the learner engages with the content, objectives are identified.
   
   
2. Appropriate methods and resources are chosen to help the learner achieve the learning objectives. 
   
   
3. At the end of learning, the learner's ability to meet the stated objectives are assessed.

The second approach, Constructivist design, assumes that learning occurs when the individual learners, through interacting with the world, construct their own personal knowledge. This contemporary learner-centred approach, whereby the learner is engaged in an active process of collaboration and discovery, tends to be favoured above the more traditional teacher-centred approach which appears to take a hypodermic syringe–like transmission of knowledge through the relatively passive acquaintance of facts and rules.

Herrington & Standen (1999) chart a theoretical shift from a behavioural to a constructivist approach that educators have taken to the design of learning technology. In the world of educational technology, Computer Aided Learning and Computer Based Training (CAL & CBT), with its roots largely in the behaviourist tradition, is pitted against modern constructivist theory. The approach taken in the development of Mentor in Cyberspace has been to try to strike a balance between these two opposing theories. It attempts to combine the strengths of ISD design, with its emphasis on presentation, information, structure and reinforcement on the one hand with constructivist elements that provide a set of tools and methods for the mentor to construct new knowledge within ill-structured, authentic, real contexts on the other (Brown,J.S., Collins, A., & Duguid1989).

The sections developed on the CD-ROM tend to reflect an Instructional Systems Design (ISD) approach. Content is structured, contains stimuli, and responses to them are reinforced. The content is prescribed but prescribed loosely, allowing room for individual creativity within set boundaries. For example, ideas for an agenda for the first meeting are suggested, but the mentor may choose to respond quite differently and still produce an agenda, which is the main goal for the activity. A range of resources and the results of interactions are designed to enhance the potential for mentors to develop their own understanding and practice.

A more constructivist design approach has been taken by constructing a mentor web page on the University's on-line campus that uses computer-mediated conferencing software (Lotus Notes domino). Mentors can access this either through links embedded in the CD-ROM or by inserting the address of a location in their browser in the normal way. The aim is the creation of a mentor community where ideas and practice constantly develop and the capacity to discuss, reflect and receive feedback is an essential part of developing and constructing a personal mentoring practice. The web page provides the mentors with opportunities to reflect upon their role and share their ideas, confidentially, through discussion with other mentors and tutors. Lave (1991) regards the processes of dialogue, shared interest, participation and collaboration as essential elements for this construction of knowledge.

 

Results of Initial Iterative Evaluation

The first prototype was evaluated through semi-structured interviews and by videoing a small sample of mentors interacting with it. The results prompted considerable refinement in the design approach taken.

The initial design had been largely based on a 'hunt and find' approach; one predominantly taken in the design of children's interactive multimedia. The adult mentors in the sample tended to shy away from screen 'furniture' that shuffled, moved or screeched. They were confident in working with text and took their time to read, reflect and ponder. They requested clear navigational signals to facilitate orientation. They felt at ease with the design metaphor of a book, and found the visual metaphors used (Homer's Odyssey, instruments of time measurement, marine navigational tools, etc.,) appropriate.

Some mentors stated how stressful and busy their lives were and, rather than exploring the issues for themselves, preferred to be "told what to do". These comments were highly influential in informing the current design.

An analysis of the mentor role, which originally identified nine separate sections, was condensed into five sections. These sections are:

1. The role of the mentor
2. First meetings
3. Preparing your mentee to teach
4. Identifying development needs
5. Assessing teaching

Additional resources to assist the navigation such as a help screen, backtrack button and a time devise, which help mentors identify what they should do at certain points in the year, were also developed.

 

Conclusion

Fifteen mentors are engaged in a yearlong pilot study ending in May 2000 which attempts to measure the success of introducing interactive multimedia to supplement the training of mentors in the VET sector.

The particular focus of research will examine:

1. whether the choice and design of hybrid interactive multimedia, with the integration of an On-Line Campus containing dedicated sites for mentors, supports and enhances the mentor's understanding and performance of their role. 
   
   
2. whether the design and content of the system may have transferability potential with workplace mentors in other sectors.

 

Bibliography

Dearing (1997) National Inquiry into Higher Education. HMSO

FEFC (1996) Report of the FEFC Learning and Technology Committee (The Higginson Report) Further Education Funding Council

Kennedy, H (1997) Learning Works; Widening Participation in Further Education, Coventry; FEFC

Jowett, V 1998. Working for a degree – a mentoring project in work based learning. Facets of mentoring in higher education 2. SEDA paper 103.19 –34.

Malderez,A. 1998. Addressing tensions in the mentoring relationship – interpersonal skills training. Facets of mentoring in higher education 2. SEDA paper 103.49 -57.

Herrington & Standen 1999. Moving from an Instructivist to a Constructivist Multimedia Learning Environment. in Ed Media 99 Proceedings. Seattle, USA 99 AACE Virginia.

Boyle T. (1997) Design for Multimedia Learning. Prentice Hall

Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42.

Lave, J. (1991). Situating learning in communities of practice. In L. B. Resnick, J. Levine, & S. Teasley (eds.), Perspectives on socially shared cognition (pp. 63-82). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.