Saima’s teaching practice placement is well underway, and she is getting used to the pattern of her teaching week and her regular mentor meetings. Things have been going pretty well, but she is gathering rather a formidable list of targets, including:
“Improve classroom management around transition points.”
“Develop subject knowledge.”
“Be more reflective after lessons.”
“Use a wider range of teaching strategies.”
“Work on your questioning to check for understanding.”
The problem is she doesn’t really know where to begin in implementing these targets. She knows what “improved classroom management” and “checking for understanding” should look like, but she has absolutely no idea how to get there. “Developing subject knowledge” and “using a wider range of teaching strategies” is fine – she’ll just keep plugging away at those, but is there something specific she needs to be working on now to support her teaching? And as for “being more reflective”, what’s that about?
To Saima these targets feel a bit like she’s been handed a map of Ben Nevis when all she needed to know is how to tie her bootlaces. They are too vast, too nebulous. What she really needs is a focused target with a clear action step she can execute tomorrow to make tangible progress.
The power of action-step targets
Effective mentors avoid setting paralysing broad targets. Instead, they avoid judgementoring and support their mentees to identify their development areas through guided reflection (Hobson and Maldarez, 2013), assisting them in generating actionable targets. Beginning and early career teachers need guidance to break complex professional practice targets down into smaller components that allow them to take more manageable scaffolded steps towards their goal.
Effective targets usually the following elements:
- Granular Focus: A single, observable aspect of practice.
- Rationale: A clear explanation of why this focus matters.
- Action Steps: 2-3 specific, measurable steps the mentee can take towards meeting the target.
Let’s consider Saima’s target to “Improve classroom management around transition points.”
Rather than setting Saima such a broad abstract target, Saima’s mentor could instead have helped her to breakdown the target down into a concrete plan for improvement.
Target: Establish clear classroom routines so that students can independently move between activities with minimal direction.
Action Steps:
- Teach and practice transition routines for common activities (e.g., arrival, handing out equipment, switching activities, lesson endings).
- Provide verbal cues and countdowns (e.g., “In one minute, you need to be ready to give an answer to the question on the board”).
- Use consistent non-verbal signals (e.g., The Pause) to secure attention before issuing any direction.
The action steps mean Saima knows exactly what to do and how the mentor will observe it next time, while the rationale provided allows her to understand what the target is intended to achieve. This is a scaffolded approach that will support Saima to approach her classroom with a more proactive, pre-emptive approach to classroom management, rather simply reacting in the moment to management challenges.
The importance of granular targets for ITAPs
Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP) days, introduced by the DfE as part of the 2024 ITE Quality Requirements, mean that breaking down core teaching skills in target setting isn’t just a matter of good mentor practice. ITAPs are explicitly designed to provide trainees with dedicated time focusing on core classroom practices that provide foundational teaching skills, and include a requirement for mentors to provide their mentees with practical, actionable feedback. Supporting beginning teachers to identify and set realistic, actionable targets is a key element of this.
Experiencing success
In the messy reality of the classroom, small, concrete successes can sustain a developing teacher and stop beginning teachers feeling overwhelmed by a barrage of targets. By stepping back from the big picture and concentrating instead on small, high-leverage actions, we enable our beginning teachers to experience this success. Getting targets right can made a big difference.
Reference:
Hobson, A. & Malderez, A. (2013). Judgementoring and other threats to realizing the potential of school‐based mentoring in teacher education. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education. 2. 89-108. 10.1108/IJMCE-03-2013-0019.
Becoming a History Teacher 