Student teachers and mentoring processes. A study of scaffolding and learning in the Zone of Proximal development

This paper is based on a case study of mentoring in teacher education in Norway. It is a story about a mentor (co-operating teacher) named Eric and his four student teachers. Eric is chosen as an informant because several students mention him as "a very good co-operating teacher." They also say, "they learn a lot form him." This paper describes the practices of the mentor teacher and how mentoring contributes to student teacher learning. A central issue is how student teachers develop pedagogical content knowledge in mathematics through reflections with the mentor about their teaching episodes. The study draws attention to how Vygosky's ideas about the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) can be useful in understanding how student teachers learn to teach mathematics. The study focuses on the role of dialogue with someone more knowledgeable, namely, the mentor teacher. A central conception in understanding what happens in the mentoring process is "scaffolding." Though language is central in this scaffolding activity, the analysis and interpretation of data, collected by video, observations, diaries and interviews, uncover other important elements.