What do you think are the main issues raised in this WPL Film, in particular those related to:

• monitoring of student progress and well-being
• feedback
• pastoral care of the student

What did the workplace supervisor do well in this situation? What could be improved? What do you think about the relationship between the two students on placement?

The workplace supervisor assumes the problems the student faces are related to poor English skills and/or being an international student. Do you agree? Could there be other issues at play here? How would you find out? What situations have you faced that are similar?

The supervisor held regular meetings with the student teachers. On the surface, she seemed somewhat caring, but didn’t seem to have the time to truly mentor the student teachers. For example, she was on the phone for too long prior to the first meeting, and answered the phone during the second meeting.

Should the supervisor have been present at the classes the two students were teaching? How can she give any useful feedback if she wasn’t there to observe? She was simply giving very general feedback based on the responses the student teachers were providing at meetings.

I thought it was appropriate to speak to Zhao alone, but when she finally did so, the supervisor made assumptions about Zhao and didn’t allow him time to explain or speak. Asking if Zhao had anything to say was a good start, but it went downhill very quickly from there! On the flipside, it is important to let the student teacher know they might need to lift their game, rather than cruise through the placement, which Zhao seems to be doing. It just needs to be tactful.

I wonder if the male teacher in the staff room led the supervisor astray with his comment about the Zhao being Asian, and about him observing lessons and not even attempting to help him. How inappropriate!

I don’t think that one could assume immediately that Zhoa’s problems are related to his poor English skills. I thought he had a reasonable understanding of some more complex language, and the supervisor never seemed to make her sentences less complex for him. Most definitely there could be other issues at play! There are so many different factors that could be influencing Zhao’s behaviour and performance. I wonder if Zhao could talk to another staff member, perhaps someone he feels more comfortable with?

I felt extremely uncomfortable with my mentor teacher in my second professional teaching placement. I found it difficult to explain how I was feeling. He had very high expectations and I didn’t like some of his interactions with his students.