The creativity of early childhood teachers in their learning process to become a mentor

A group of 60 early childhood teachers were enrolled in a supporting teacher scheme, a 24-hour short course to facilitate the School-partnership collaboration as well as teacher internship. This intensive training/induction course was aimed at introducing the rationale of school placement, teacher development, pre- and post-lesson conferences, classroom observation, and mentoring. Supporting teachers were asked to write down reports, keep a record of their experience and the video records of the mentoring activities, on a voluntary basis. Field notes were taken during class sessions when mentors worked in groups in discussions or in peer tutoring situations. Recent work suggests that mentoring is to facilitate guidance, coaching, interpersonal support, and socializing and professional development. Analysis of the written reports, videos and field notes would enhance our understanding of how mentors create goals and strategies appropriate to their roles, settings and contexts and whether the goals are consistent or flexible in the process. The findings of the study suggest that there was some evidence of mentor teachers constructing their own learning, activating self-directed learning / teachers' creativity with the inter-play of social interaction, reflection, experience and interest in task in the learning process.