Tübingen School of Education (TüSE)

Lehr:werkstatt (Longterm School Internship)

Brief Description

 

Lehr:werkstatt (Teaching Workshop) is an alternative internship form, a long-term internship that can replace the orientation internship in the Bachelor of Education (B. Ed.). In this model developed by the BMW Foundation, a teacher (the Lehr:mentor) and a student teacher (the Lehr:werker) form a tandem and work together over the course of a school year. In two- to three-week blocks during the two lecture-free periods and approximately five hours per week during the lecture period, the Lehr:werker actively participates in the teaching of his or her Lehr:mentor. The year-round internship is flanked by several competence workshops and an accompanying university event.

A special feature of the Lehr:werkstatt is the close relationship between the Lehr:werker and Lehr:mentor, which usually develops over the course of a school year. The students gain intensive practical experience, and the teachers receive new impulses and can design lessons together with a student.

Research Projects and Results

Title: The mentor-mentee relationship in school-based teacher education. Theoretical modeling and operationalization.

Summary: Research on school-based internships assumes the mentor-mentee relationship as a central factor in the professionalization of student teachers. What is unclear is which features of relationships are theoretically suggested and how they can be empirically operationalized. Based on the state of research, a framework model is offered that focuses on the relation of support and challenge. With this as a basis, relationship features are inductively identified through linguistic conversation analysis.

Publication: Wenz, K. & Cramer, C. (2019): The mentor-mentee relationship in school-based teacher education. Theoretical modeling and operationalization. In: ZeHf – Journal for Empirical Research in Higher Education, 1, S. 28-43. https://doi.org/10.3224/zehf.v3i1.03

Against the backdrop of the high significance attributed to school practice phases for the training of prospective teachers’ professional competences, this article presents the long-term internship Lehr:werkstatt of the Tübingen School of Education. Initial findings from the accompanying research indicate that the relationship between the students and the supervising school mentors is an important indicator for the learning-conducive design of this school practice format.

Publication: Führer, F.-M. & Wenz, K. (2019): the project Lehr:werkstatt of the Tübingen School of Education – an alternative internship form in the teaching degree. In: Teaching and Learning (Lehren & Lernen), 8/9, pp. 22-26.

Title: Quality of the mentor-mentee relationship in school-based teacher education. Empirical Validation and Differentiation

Summary: This article addresses the theoretically and empirically understudied question of how relationship design and quality can be operationalized in school-based mentoring. Using qualitative content analysis, we reconstruct how mentor-mentee relationships are structured from written reasons given by mentors for their decisions on courses of action in mentoring (vignettes). Characteristics of high-quality relationships in mentoring already identified in a previous study are now validated and differentiated from the perspective of mentors. As a result, the (theoretically assumed) balance between support and challenge proves to be a central feature of quality mentor-mentee relationships, which potentially stimulate and support professionalization processes in the school internship.

Publication: Führer, F.-M. & Cramer, C. (2020): Quality of the mentor-mentee relationship in school-based teacher education. Empirical validation and differentiation. In: K. Rheinländer & D. Scholl (PUB): Extended internship phases in teacher education: fields of tension between theory, practice and the determination of professionalization. Wiesbaden: Springer. (i.D.)

Title: Mentoring and mentor-mentee relationship in school-based phases of teacher education. An overview of definitions, concepts and research findings.

Summary: Starting from conceptual clarifications and concepts of mentoring in school-based teacher education, this article provides an overview of the state of research with a view to definitions, conceptions, and research findings. A theory deficit in the discourse as well as in empirical research is established. In theory and empirical research, the mentor-mentee relationship is focused on as a central moment of professionalization in mentoring. One focus of the explanations is on the quality of the relationship, which is considered particularly significant for the mentees’ degree of professionalization. Potentials for more theoretically grounded empirical research as well as for the discourse on professionalism are pointed out.

Publication: Führer, F.-M. & Cramer, C. (2020): Mentoring and mentor-mentee relationship in school-based phases of teacher education. An overview of definitions, concepts and research findings. In: G. Hagenauer & D. Raufelder (Hrsg.): Social inclusion: social relations in school and teacher education. Münster: Waxmann. (i.d.).

Funding

Ministry of Science and Art Baden-Württemberg, University of Tübingen, Amanda and Erich Neumayer Foundation

Duration

2. funding phase until 2022

Participants

Tübingen School of Education (Dr. Felician-Michael Führer), Institute of Education (Prof. Dr. Colin Cramer), schools around Tübingen
Contact

Dr. Felician-Michael Führer: felician.fuehrer@uni-tuebingen.de

Lehr:werkstatt Tübingen
www.lehrwerkstatt.org