This mirrors feelings I had in my second
placement but together we decided that our
progress has been great, and we don’t need
appreciation from others, as we are going to be
effective teachers in ourselves”
“A’s mentor was not fulfilling his role as a
mentor and, by and large, neither was mine.
From this, there was common ground to
empathise and encourage one another to stay
focused and get as much as possible from SE2”
The first quote, in particular, indicates a
developing self-efficacy and an ability to stand up
for themselves [20]. In a few cases, as already
identified, where the relationships between mentor
and student teacher were poor the peer coach
played a pivotal role. An impact of working with
people who do not value you sufficiently can be a
reduced capacity to feel confident. This is a
complex attribute but Questionnaire 3 provided
evidence that this was happening. The students
were asked ‘What were the three most successful
developments your coachee made’ the most
regular answer (from one fifth of the responses)
was in the area of being confident and assured.
Other responses included related factors such as
‘being more positive’, ‘being more balanced so I
could be more laidback’ and being more ‘secure’,
these also indicate the development of confidence
in the students.
More evidence that the students had learnt to
respond to others came in Questionnaire 3 where
the students reported that they felt that their coach
was able to pick up on their difficulties – giving a
mean of 6.7 on an 8 point Lickert scale. Similarly,
in response to the question ‘To what extent did
your coach recognise your ability to develop’ on
an 8 point bi-polar scale (8= a lot; 1= a little) the
students mean was 6.4. Being confident in your
own practice allows you to begin to feel able to
offer advice to others. Through the process of
giving advice, one can reflect on one's own
practice and this whole process can be a very
positive experience.
Another aspect was the development of
listening skills and interestingly over half the
participants felt that they had improved their
listening skills through being a coach. One student
commented:
“By listening to problems a person is going
through it helps that person and I love doing this
….. no specifics have to be said but I definitely
learned to listen more”
This is interesting because as a beginner
teacher, students often have to listen to advice and
feedback about themselves. Learning from this
experience and recognising critical learning