© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 157
J. Kriewaldt et al. (eds.), Educating Future Teachers: Innovative Perspectives
in Professional Experience, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-5484-6_10
Chapter 10
Fostering Professional Learning Through
Evidence-Informed Mentoring Dialogues
in School Settings
Jeana Kriewaldt, Melanie Nash, Sally Windsor, Jane Thornton,
and Catherine Reid
Abstract This chapter examines how the use of a descriptive observation tool
mediates post-lesson conversations that teacher educators and mentor teachers have
with preservice teachers. Our principal focus was to investigate the effects of the use
of evidence-informed lesson observations in combination with a dialogic approach,
as the basis for feedback on teaching practice and student learning. An interpretive
case study approach was designed to investigate how mentor teachers and teacher
educators used the observation tool. The findings provided data about the effects the
tool had on the dispositions of the participants towards collecting and interrogating
classroom evidence and how these impacted on their post-lesson conversations with
preservice teachers.
Preliminary findings suggested that some mentor teachers found it difficult to
use description rather than judgement when discussing teaching and learning. This
diminished opportunities for the construction and interrogation of professional rea-
soning in post-lesson discussions. Later findings, however, indicated that the use of
the descriptive observation tool for the recording of evidence-informed observa-
tions fostered an inquiring and collaborative stance in post-lesson reviews.
Collaborations of this nature, between mentor teachers and preservice teachers, pro-
vided the preservice teachers with greater agency during the professional dialogue
and enhanced their capacity to reflect on their teaching.
J. Kriewaldt (*) • M. Nash • C. Reid
Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne,
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
e-mail: [email protected]
S. Windsor
Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies, Gothenburg University,
Gothenburg, Sweden
Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne,
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
J. Thornton
Koonung Secondary College, Mont Albert North, VIC, Australia