Professional placements, mentoring practices and workplace readiness : what are the connections?

Students enrolled in a teaching degree divide their time between learning the theory and practicing the theory. It is strongly argued that the development of authentic workplace skills and knowledge occurs during practical component of a teaching degree. The introduction of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers has benchmarked the development of particular skills and knowledge at a graduate level. Hence, it follows that the practices used by the classroom-based teacher will influence the growth of the pre-service teacher’s workplace readiness. This paper presents a small research project that investigated the practices used by classroom teachers to mentor pre-service teachers during their final placements. The results highlight the connections between the practices employed and the outcomes achieved by the pre-service teachers.