Turning the tables: Students mentoring teachers in ICT professional development

Abstract

This dissertation evaluates the effectiveness of a programme where students mentored teachers as a form of professional development for teachers within the context of information and communication technologies (ICT) and to examine what the students and teachers gained from their involvement in the programme. The hypothesis was that when teachers had an authentic purpose for professional development then the learning resulted in a greater impact for the teacher and student learning.

Teachers are at different levels of implementation with ICT and there is the belief that teachers will need to embrace ICT and incorporate the technologies, into all aspects of their practice and use it effectively with students. Teachers professional development with ICT not only needs to focus on developing the technical skills to use the technologies, but to also increase teachers' pedagogical knowledge of how these technologies can be successfully integrated into developing effective student learning. Therefore it was appropriate to explore the importance of the professional development process for teachers and in particular the aspect of students mentoring teachers within a professional development programme. The literature review also focussed on the interaction of ICT and learning. The research identified the key components of a mentoring programme, where students as mentors assisted teachers to become proficient with ICT. An analysis of the effectiveness of the mentoring programme was examined by way of a key participant interview, four focus group discussions and an analysis of a reflective diary.

This research found that the individual professional development for teachers in an ICT context where they take part in an ongoing mentoring programme was effective. It has been clearly identified in this small project that setting up a programme where teachers have a student mentor who has both knowledge and skills with ICT, is a valuable component of their professional development. It is important that this aspect of professional development, where the student-teacher partnership develops goals that are focused, obtainable and have a specific purpose to ensure the process is completed and is made available for teachers to link into their appraisal goals.