Developed out of the Provincial Teacher Education and Development Committee (PTEDC), the Mentor Teacher course has been developed to capacitate classroom teachers as expert mentor teachers during student Teaching Practice in schools.

The Mentor Teacher course is collaborative project with the Cape Teaching and Learning Institute (CTLI) and the four public universities in the Western Cape and supports teachers in the mentoring and training of student teachers during the Teaching Practice component of their Initial Teacher Education.

The Mentor Teacher course is a blended learning programme presented online via Google Classroom and which runs over ten

weeks. It comprises of six units (see overview below) that includes information about student practice teaching, mentoring and coaching and the development and use of evaluative criteria for student teachers. Included are short activities that assist teachers to work through the course material and take a reflective stance in relation to themselves as mentor teachers in schools. The course presentation is supported by three Teams contact sessions that are held online.

The course is relevant for both primary and high school teachers as it presents a conceptualisation of mentoring that can be applied to supporting student teachers completing their teaching practice in different phases and grades.
Ideally groups of teachers from the same school should consider completing the course together as the course encourages schools and teachers work together to develop a school programme that can be used to support student teachers in each unique school context during their teaching practice.

Course Outline:

Online Session 1

Course preparation/Pre-reading - Wednesday 26 July

Online with MS Teams

16:00-17:30

1.1 Completion of Initial Understanding Task  - 26 July – 8 August

1.2 Unit 1: Understanding Teaching Practice

Online Session 2 - 10 August (16h00-17h00)

Online with MS Teams

2.1 Unit 2: Mentoring and Coaching : 10-23 August

Online Session 3 - Wednesday 23 August

Online with MS Teams

3.1 Unit 3: Developing evaluative criteria for student teachers (Part 1) :(23 August – 5 September) Self- directed learning

3.2 Unit 4: Developing evaluative criteria for student teachers (Part 2)

Online Session 4

Online with MS Teams: Thursday 7 September (16:00-17:00)

4.1 Unit 4: Developing evaluative criteria for student teachers (Part 2) (cont.) 7-19 September

Online Session 5

Online with MS Teams : Thursday 21 September (16:00-17:00)

5.1 Unit 5: Mentoring and Coaching in practice 21 September – 5 October

Unit 6: Concluding the course

Contact session 6: CTLI 04-05 October (08H30-15H30)

Completion of Developed Understanding Task

7. Completion and closing of Teacher Mentor Course : Monday 09 October

All Google Classroom activities submitted

Online part of course: 14  August - 09 October 2023 

Face-to-face at CTLI: 04-05 October 2023

*NB! Should you miss more than ONE ONLINE SESSION- you will be requested to reapply for the next course.