ABSTRACT

Student teachers need regular assessment of, and feedback on, their teaching. Assessment and supervision is when the mentor assesses the competence of a student teacher as a classroom teacher and, as a result, offers strategies to improve and develop his or her knowledge and skills. It occurs when the student teacher teaches and the mentor observes the teaching. Following this the mentor and student teacher discuss the observed teaching. As a result of this discussion, targets are set for the student teacher.

The number of times the mentor does this will obviously depend on the individual student teacher’s needs at any given time. When student teachers are in school full-time it is reasonable to expect that every teacher working with them will observe at least one lesson per class each week, whatever the student teacher’s level of competence.