ABSTRACT
This contribution examines the practical and theoretical knowledge base for mentoring during teacher induction and has its basis in a longitudinal and close-to-practice research programme called The Professional Development of Beginning Teachers in Secondary Education which has been conducted since 1979. The programme concerns a study into the process of professional development of beginning teachers during their first five years of service. In addition, data was collected from a large number of in-service courses for beginning teachers, and from in-service courses for mentors of beginning teachers-i.e., senior teachers who are responsible for mentoring their beginning colleagues. This chapter describes the practical and theoretical knowledge base which is basic for good mentoring practice and which has been developed over the years. It suggests that there are three essential elements of a mentor’s knowledge base: first, the various facets in beginning teachers professional development; second, a framework for analysing their classroom performance; and third, a model for understanding the process of learning from experiences.
