In August, the NEST project was presented at the joint conference of the EARLI Special Interest Groups (SIG) 11 ‘Teaching and Teacher Education’ and SIG 13 ‘Moral and Democratic Education’ in Oxford. This conference aimed to connect insights from teaching and teacher education with perspectives on moral and democratic education, emphasizing the importance of diversity within classrooms and societies.
The NEST project focused on enhancing mentoring competences through an adaptive mentor training program in disadvantaged schools across four European education systems: Bulgaria, Catalonia, Romania, and Wallonia (Austria was not included given the low numbers). The project surveyed 254 mentors and 711 novice teachers multiple times, revealing significant increases in mentors’ self-assessed competences after training. Furthermore, novice teachers supported by trained mentors rated their mentors’ competences higher than those paired with untrained mentors.
The findings presented at the conference highlight the critical role of effective mentorship in supporting novice teachers, particularly in challenging educational contexts, and demonstrate the potential impact of tailored training programs on teacher development.
Learn more on the NEST project and its impact here, and leverage the NEST online resources!
