ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors discuss the role of the mentor in working with beginning teachers as they teach their first mathematics lessons. Several models of mentor and beginning teacher team teaching have been developed as a means of bridging the beginning teacher's transition to taking individual responsibility for teaching the lesson. There are advantages and disadvantages to team teaching because it has the potential to support the beginning teacher in a participatory role alongside the mentor and the performative elements of early lessons are reduced. Nonetheless, team teaching could induce feelings of confusion for the beginning teacher and the pupils because the classroom context has changed and the responsibility for decision-making during the lesson can become ambiguous. A cyclical model of collaborative teaching would normally start with the mathematics concepts to be taught, alongside a focus on an aspect of practice that the participants want to develop.
