Teacher learning and professional development in school-university partnership: How do mentors learn?

Abstract

This study investigates teacher learning and professional development in school-university partnership in Myanmar. This study explores teacher learning and professional development through engaging in a school-university partnership through mentoring activity. Research studies have shown mentoring can improve teachers' learning and professional development (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2000). A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was applied in this study. Participants were 120 schoolteachers in the quantitative part while 4 participants were interviewed. This study aimed to answer how the impact of school-university partnership on teacher learning and professional development can be understood. To answer this research question, two groups of schoolteachers (mentor and non-mentors) and three groups of teachers based on communication level with student teachers were compared. The results showed that teachers who had mentoring experiences improved their professional skills and competencies more than non-mentor teachers mainly in the areas: pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge about learners' behaviours and characteristics and cross-curricular skills. Furthermore, teachers who had intensive communication with student teachers showed higher mean values in self-confidence, enjoyment in teaching and reflection on teaching practices and feeling like a responsible person in education. Findings from the qualitative part showed that teachers learned these skills and competencies through intensive collaborative activities such as discussing teaching and learning, guiding student teachers in their classroom management and planning a lesson and having a friendly conversation with them. Overall, this study confirms that engaging in school-university partnership through mentoring enhances mentors develop their self-confidence, and enjoyment in teaching as well as their professional knowledge and skills.