Studying Effective Communication Strategies for Teachers/Mentors

This annotated bibliography focuses on effective communication strategies for teachers and mentors within Australian universities. It compiles six key journal articles, each providing unique insights into the topic. The first article examines the impact of professional learning communities on mentoring practices, highlighting the importance of effective communication in pedagogical development. The second article explores how pre-service teachers develop their identities, emphasizing the role of interaction and support. The third article investigates the roles and responsibilities of prospective and cooperating teachers during practice teaching, advocating for training in mentoring and communication. The fourth article examines a peer mentoring program for first-year psychology students, demonstrating how effective communication strategies can improve student success. The fifth article discusses the role of peer mentoring, highlighting the need for clear definitions and boundaries to improve mentoring practices through effective communication. Finally, the sixth article emphasizes mentoring as a cost-effective professional development tool, highlighting the importance of communication skills, leadership development, and pedagogical knowledge advancement. Overall, the bibliography highlights the importance of effective communication strategies within the context of teacher development and mentoring programs in Australian universities.

Running head: OB
Topic: Studying Effective Communication Strategies for Teachers/Mentors in Australian
Universities.
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

OB 1
Annotated Bibliography:
1. Hudson, P., Hudson, S., Gray, B., & Bloxham, R. (2013). Learning about being effective
mentors: Professional learning communities and mentoring. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 93, 1291-1300.
In this particular journal article, the authors provide an insight into the considerable
change in education in Australia after the government decided to provide financial aid for
supporting the ‘educational revolution’. Such type of change required enactors of the education
reform such as teachers or mentors to remain engaged in the pedagogical development that leads
to the materialization of the reform measures. Extending beyond the conventional norms of the
developing professionally lay in the notion of forming professional learning communities for
advancing the mentoring practice. The study helps in exploring the effectiveness in forming
professional learning communities for advancing the mentoring practice in Australian
Universities.
In the article, the authors discussed that in Australia there has been a push for the
mandatory hours in the professional development for teachers. For instance, the Queensland
College for the Teachers and NSW Institute for the teachers has introduced the professional
development of teachers as a criteria for renewing the registration of the teachers. The
professional development has been instigated as the reaction to the lower outcome data from the
student and acted as the attempt for up skilling the teachers towards the present practice. This has
acted as a recommendation for the Australian education system. Arguments has been put forward
stating that these measures acted as a hindrance to the sustained level of professional learning.
Conventional procedures of presenting and conceptualizing the experiences of professional
development must be reviewed for the teachers especially due to their success, efficiency and the

2OB
cost effectiveness in raising the outcomes for the students. The journal states that authentic
professional development that also includes effective communication strategies must act as the
frontrunner for the development of teachers.
2. Nguyen, H. T. M., & Yang, H. (2018). Learning to become a teacher in Australia: a study of
pre-service teachers’ identity development. The Australian Educational Researcher, 45(5), 625-
645.
In this journal article the authors’ tries to examine the ways which the teachers adopt in
order to learn teaching in the Australian context during practicum and how this experience helps
in constructing their identities as the teachers through the framework of the activity theory. The
study portrays how data had been driven by interviewing the pre-service teachers and
supervising teachers and feedback derived from university mentors, lesson planners and the
feedback of the supervising teacher. The findings portrayed that teachers usually identify
formation as a continuous process and outcome of collective activity derived through interaction
with the coordinating teacher, student and mentor. In this article, the authors put across an
argument that the identity formation of the teacher has been related to the agency of seeking and
offering support to the others. The teachers are therefore in position to produce as well as
establish their identity with respect to the community through undertaking agentive action of
interacting with the others.
3. Rakicioglu-Soylemez, A., & Eroz-Tuga, B. (2014). Mentoring expectations and experiences of
prospective and cooperating teachers during practice teaching. Australian Journal of Teacher
Education, 39(10), n10.

3OB
In this particular study the authors tried to explore the received and the perceived roles as
well as responsibilities of the prospective and the cooperating teacher in regard to the mentoring
practice during the practice teaching of English in foreign language setting. The findings put
forward implications for applications of practice teaching with an indication of the need for
efficient socio professional network between cooperating and prospective teachers during the
practice teaching.
The present study examines the perceptions of the teachers regarding mentoring practice
and role they have in being a part of practice teaching. Results have suggested that prospective
teachers does not represent the only participant group who required a detailed introduction
towards the applications of practice teaching based on requirements and applications. It is also
the cooperating teachers who needed information regarding conduction of mentoring practice for
addressing professional needs of the prospective teachers while understanding mutual benefits of
mentoring the prospective teachers during the practice teaching. The article thus portrays that
cooperating teachers required official training in order to become the mentors. A teacher might
have the knowledge of teaching well but they might not be able to easily translate it into a role
that is appropriate in guiding and helping them as well as student for developing expertise.
Hence, universities involved in the practice teaching must consider putting across orientation
programs which also included the effective communication strategies to stakeholders of practice
teaching.
4. Chester, A., Burton, L. J., Xenos, S., & Elgar, K. (2013). Peer mentoring: Supporting
successful transition for first year undergraduate psychology students. Australian Journal of
Psychology, 65(1), 30-37.

4OB
This journal article helps in examining the effectiveness of mentoring program that
supports the transition of the first year students of psychology in the Australian University. The
program comprised of the students of third year to work in close association with smaller group
of the first-year students in order to enhance the five key aspects related in determining the
success of the student. The key aspects focused on connectedness, capability, resourcefulness,
culture and purpose. The program was meant for encouraging deeper and strategic approaches to
learning along with building psychological literacy. This program had been implemented across
first year of undergraduate program in Australian metropolitan university where close to 241
student put across data for evaluation study. There was significant and positive changes
identified on three out of the five aspects that determined the success of students with increase in
deeper and strategic approaches of learning and decrease of the surface learning. There had been
significant changes reported in six out of nine psychological literacies. In comparison to the
previous cohorts there was also an upward shift on grades with the higher proportion of the final
grades ranging between the 60 percent and 80 percent. This study suggested that proactive
interventions through incorporating effective communication strategies during the first semester
of the first year was able to enhance vital learning aspects thereby increasing the success rate for
the undergraduate students in psychology.
5. Egege, S., & Kutieleh, S. (2015). Peer mentors as a transition strategy at University: Why
mentoring needs to have boundaries. Australian Journal of Education, 59(3), 265-277.
This article portrayed that peer mentoring has been considered as one of the effective
strategies for not only enhancing student satisfaction but also their retention. As a result,
mentoring programs had been implemented in the universities and has become a crucial feature
of the best practice in the transition programs. However, the literature portrays inconsistency in

5OB
not only what the term entail but also the ways in which it finds an application thereby resulting
in diverse opinion regarding mentoring program. The article portrays how it can be argued that
agreeing on the definition of the mentoring remains secondary to benefits of the practice and so
emphasizing on the terminologies simply plays semantics. The article puts across arguments
stating the fact that the terminologies hardly matters and hence elucidating on what the mentor
entails remains crucial towards the comparative evaluation and improvement of the mentoring
practice through effective communication strategies along with identifying the best practice.
6. Hudson, P. (2013). Mentoring as professional development: ‘growth for both’ mentor and
mentee. Professional development in education, 39(5), 771-783.
This journal article put across that teachers requires professional development in order to
keep up with the practices of teaching even when the cost for the widespread professional
development is prohibitive across the education system. Mentoring serves as a means for
embedding the cost efficient professional development. In this regard, quantitative data had been
analyzed via a framework of pedagogical knowledge while the qualitative data remained collated
in themes. Data collected through survey portrayed that although the mentoring of the
pedagogical knowledge had been variable but these knowledge practice occur with most of the
mentors that requires them to not only evaluate but also articulate the teaching practice.
Qualitative data on the other hand portrayed that mentoring acted like professional development
and led towards the enhancement of the communication skills, development of the leadership
roles and the advancement of the pedagogical knowledge. Thus, providing necessary
professional development to the teachers on aspects of mentoring helps in building capacities in
two key ways: ensuring quality mentoring for the teachers through explicit practices of

6OB
mentoring and deconstructing and reflecting the pedagogical advancements of the teaching
practices for the mentors.

7OB