Reflective Internship Instructor Training Research

In China,experienced teachers usually work as cooperating teachers,and rarely receive professional training before taking mentor role.However,on the one hand,as cooperating teachers lack the understanding of teacher education,the theoretical cognition of what future teachers should be cultivated,and the reflection of teaching belief and practice,it is difficult to transform the role of common teacher to the role of cooperating teacher naturally.On the other hand,training cooperating teachers is the requirement of the need of cooperating teachers professional development as teacher educators.To provide effective training,several questions should be considered firstly:1)what kinds of practices of cooperating teachers can support cultivate“ adaptive expert ”effectively? 2)what kinds of role,knowledge,practices and skills can facilitate such effective practices of cooperating teachers? 3)what kinds of methods can be used to help cooperating teachers to transform role and develop these knowledge and skills? The theoretical framework of training on this paper is based on these basic questions.To cultivate “ adaptive expert ”,the cooperating teachers training aims to practice cooperating teachers into reflective practitioners by providing a wide variety of practice opportunities to develop student teachers' reflection and self learning ability.The training focuses on the reflection of cooperating teachers and the practicalness of training methods.Specifically,the training has three major tasks: 1)help cooperating teachers understand the teaching and learning deeply;2)help cooperating teachers transform role and become reflective practitioners;3)to provide guidance for mentor skills for cooperating teachers.These tasks are not separated,but interwoven through understanding the teaching and learning,changing the role in reflecting in practice.The training methods are varied,such as portfolio,video recording,analysis and discussion,etc.,and have the characteristics of practicalness and reality.In addition,this paper use William & Mary College's Clinical Faculty Program as an example to illustrate how cooperating teachers training design training course,implement the practical methods and cultivate cooperating teachers' reflective ability effectively.Finally,we can learn from the theoretical framework of cooperating teachers and the analysis of the example,to create positive and supportive cultural environment,emphasize the cooperating teachers' reflective ability on the training andthe practicalness of the training methods.