August 2004 — Exclusive
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Database-Facilitated Mentoring Drives the Effective Placement of Student Teachers
Tacit Knowledge Transferred from Mentors to Mentees
It is essential that schools receive satisfactory performance from the student teachers we place with them. In the tightly knit education infrastructure in Hong Kong, building the reputation of our students as capable teachers with good potential is important to ensure that more schools continue to offer field-practice placements for our students. In such a delicately balanced situation, the tacit knowledge from mentors must be transferred to mentees. This is first done through direct communication by means of confidential remarks on each student and each school's database record. Second, mentors continually assist all other PSP committee members in making matching decisions, as well as in student coaching through analyzing the data in the database and sharing conclusions about each individual case whenever possible.
Description of the PSP Work Flow
Fig. 1 Use of Technology to Streamline the Work Flow and Facilitate the Mentoring Practice
Diagram of the PSP Work Flow
Description of the database
The database contains detailed information of all schools, student teachers and field-placement history. The mentors in the PSP committee decide what is relevant and how detailed data should be presented for each case. This ensures that mentees hit the most relevant information needed to facilitate their work of securing suitable field-placement opportunities that fit each individual student.
A call log is used to record information obtained from telephone calls between PSP committee members and schools, as well as between PSP committee members and student teachers. Information obtained in this manner is of two natures:
1) Timely factual data, including the most current placement openings, are entered into the database; and
2) Follow-up information, such as which subject-teacher has been approached and what has been discussed, will be recorded to save time and human resources for both parties.
A confidential comments field is a core feature of the database, because it provides the storage and sharing of in-house information. (This will be further discussed in the next passage.) The database enables a stable standard of PSP committee-member recruitment success and performance in representing the university while communicating with schools and student teachers. Committee members will be perceived to be more sincere, knowledgeable and concise. Indeed, the placement work d'es become significantly more efficient.
At the current stage of development, the confidential remarks section, which is only viewable by PSP committee members, is highly relied upon as guidance. All committee members make contributions to this remarks section by recording their encounters and experiences with each school and every student. However, the mentors and more experienced PSP committee members make the most valuable additional contribution of analyzing the student and school data and drawing empirical conclusions or inferences from this - serving as guidance and recommendation to other members dealing with these schools and/or particular students.
