Mentor teachers’ intended intervening during student teachers’ lessons: A vignette study in Dutch primary education

Abstract

This vignette study examined mentor teachers’ intended direction and intensity to intervene during student teachers’ lessons in Dutch primary education and the triggers for their intervening. Based on Fenstermacher's (1986) theory of premises leading to actions, we developed vignettes in which we manipulated trigger type, trigger severity, and student teacher experience. 159 mentor teachers indicated whether and how they would intervene. Results showed that mentor teachers prefer teaching values over mentoring values and intend to intervene quite intensely. We suggest that explicitly emphasising towards mentor teachers that their intervening should serve both pupils and student teachers might improve student teachers’ learning.