A new vision of mentoring in teacher education

In pre-service teacher education, mentoring is increasingly being used to replace a supervisory type of model in professional placements. As the use of mentoring gains further prominence in the pre-service teacher education context, it becomes more noticeable that the representation of mentoring is one that aligns to a more traditional approach of a mentoring dyad. The stereotypical view of a traditional mentoring dyad in pre-service teacher education consists of an older, experienced teacher mentoring a younger, inexperienced pre-service teacher. However the reality of teacher education in the 21st century is one where many pre-service teachers are not school leavers, are beginning a second career or have had previous experience in learning contexts. Mentoring is not well defined in the pre-service teacher context and increasing evidence suggests that alternative mentoring models should be considered. The purpose of this paper is to consider alternative mentoring models for pre-service teacher education other than the traditional mentoring dyad. As such this paper explores alternative models that utilise peers and groups and incorporates a community of practice.