Mentoring Pre-service Teachers: The THIINK4 Reflective Cycle - Research Paper

Oct 15, 2026

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Establishing a reciprocal relationship between mentors and pre-service teachers is essential in pre-service teacher mentoring. This study analyzes how self-regulation supports emotion management toward long-term goals, and how constructive mentoring features develop reciprocity across dyadic mentoring processes. Data were drawn from pre- and post-lesson conferences and post-mentoring interviews. Findings emphasize mentor-facilitated THIINK4 reflective thinking—think ahead, think while, think back, and think forward—to strengthen self-regulation and professional learning.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Purpose and context

Literature Review

Reciprocal relationships and power dynamics

Self-regulation and co-regulation

Implications for mentoring

Mentoring Pre-service Teachers: The THIINK4 Reflective Cycle Maya Gunawardena University of Canberra Abstract: Establishing a reciprocal relationship between mentors and pre-service teachers is critical in pre-service teacher mentoring. Highlighting self-regulation as a means for managing emotions in the pursuit of meeting long-term goals, this study examined the constructive features that help develop a reciprocal relationship between pre-service teachers and mentors. The study has captured a range of qualitative data from the dyadic process of mentoring (twoway interaction between a mentor teacher and a pre-service teacher): within the pre-and post-lesson conferences between mentors and preservice teachers and post mentoring interviews with mentors and preservice teachers. The study highlighted the strengths of mentor facilitated THIINK4 reflective thinking to enhance professional learning: think ahead (at the preparatory stage), think while (at the performing stage), think back, and think forward (at the appraisal stage). The paper highlights the critical role that the reciprocal relationship plays in each THINK stage of mentoring to foster preservice teachers’ self-regulation. Keywords: pre-service teacher education; mentoring; self-regulation; reflective teaching. Introduction The approaches to pre-service teacher education in the 21st century and beyond require reimagining and rethinking because the current demands are unique and complex sustaining being a teacher in the current system is a challenge. A plethora of research shows positive impacts of teaching practice in authentic settings (referred to as ‘clinical experience’in this paper) (Hobson & Malderez, 2013; Jaspers et al., 2018; Mena et al., 2017), but any clinical experience may not necessarily yield the best outcomes. Supervising teachers, or mentor teachers (mentors here onwards) play a vital role in educating pre-service teachers (Jaspers et al., 2018; Mena et al., 2017; Pennanen et al., 2020); however, numerous factors contribute to developing an effective and meaningful professional relationship between mentors and pre-service teachers (Pennanen et al., 2020) . As Hadwin et al. (2018) argue, professional learning encompasses cognitive, metacognitive, psychological, and emotional processes where pre-service teachers require learning, de-learning, and self-regulation. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to examine pre-service teachers’ professional learning through self-regulation (autonomously plan, monitor their performance, reflect, and learn) with the support of mentors helping them through co-regulation (provide support or feedback for them to plan, monitor their performance, reflect, and learn). The mentoring reported in this paper took place in Sri Lankan primary schools where mentors were required to support preservice teachers in their planning, implementation, and reflection stages. While the study was conducted in Sri Lanka, it has implications for broader contexts. Literature Review Developing reciprocal relationships between mentors and pre-service teachers can be challenging in many contexts and various factors affect building such relationships. For example, some studies show that a mentor’s role is hierarchical and authoritative in some contexts such as Sri Lanka (Polgampala et al., 2016; Samaraweera et al., 2018), the context in which the study was conducted. A study conducted in Ireland by Ó Gallchóir et al. (2019) found that mentor teachers act as gatekeepers of school culture. Also, a study in Israel by Rachamim and Orland-Barak (2018) found that pre-service teachers failed to establish a positive relationship with their mentors simply because of the dynamics in their power relationships. Such a power relationship as seen by Patrick’s (2013) study in Australia led to excessive stress and feelings of burnout for pre-service teachers. Therefore, managing negative emotions is important as stud

FAQs

What is the study’s main purpose?

To examine pre-service teachers’ professional learning through self-regulation, supported by mentors’ co-regulation in mentoring relationships.

How does THIINK4 reflective thinking support mentoring?

It structures reflective practice across stages: think ahead (preparatory), think while (performing), think back, and think forward (appraisal), strengthening professional learning and self-regulation.

What data sources were used in the study?

Qualitative data were collected from pre- and post-lesson conferences between mentors and pre-service teachers, and from post-mentoring interviews with both mentors and pre-service teachers.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Kurz