Supporting the growth and retention of teachers in urban classrooms poses significant challenges to the education community. Student-centred instruction has demonstrated positive impacts on student academic growth and social development, facilitating acquisition of 21st century skills. However, implementing student-centred instruction is demanding…

When new academics begin university life, the support they receive in their departments can vary. For many their initial experiences of the new job can be daunting. In this article 10 new academics from a range of disciplines were involved in a community of practice, known as Catalyst, to support them finding their feet within the university.…

This article explores elements of the professional development of a pre-tenured teacher education professor. I am that professor and I trace my journey of growth, which was aided by peer mentoring. First, I present a brief discussion on literature associated with mentoring that I found pertinent, followed by how mentoring has emerged as I…

Effective professional learning communities are crucial for supporting and developing the practice and identity formation of beginning teachers. Professional networks facilitate collegial learning and continuous improvement of professional practice of all teachers, and are especially important for out of field teachers. Rural practice is…

We examine the support mentors provide to new lecturers as part of a postgraduate programme designed to familiarise them with university teaching. Drawing on qualitative data collected from 13 new lecturers and nine mentors, we document the support new lecturers' call upon to shape their practice. We identify important issues surrounding the…

This article presents insights from a study into instructor professional learning in vocational and professional education (VPE) in Canada. While most studies on instructor learning focus on learning through formal professional development programmes, this study specifically focuses on professional learning as it happens in day-to-day practice.…

This paper demonstrates how teachers who were working in a range of developmental relationships with researchers used Coaching Dimensions to understand, describe, analyse and improve the quality of their coaching and mentoring conversations. The findings are based on analysis of transcriptions of case studies of one-to-one professional dialogue…