Course Outline:

Developed out of the Provincial Teacher Education and Development Committee (PTEDC), the Mentor Teacher course has been developed to capacitate classroom teachers as expert mentor teachers during student Teaching Practice in schools.

The Mentor Teacher course is collaborative project with the Cape Teaching and Learning Institute (CTLI) and the four public universities in the Western Cape and supports teachers in the mentoring and training of student teachers during the Teaching Practice component of their Initial Teacher Education.

The Mentor Teacher course is a blended learning programme presented online via Google Classroom, and which runs over 20 weeks. It comprises of six units (see overview below) that includes information about student practice teaching, mentoring and coaching and the development and use of evaluative criteria for student teachers. Included are short activities that assist teachers to work through the course material and take a reflective stance in relation to themselves as mentor teachers in schools. The course presentation is supported by three Teams contact sessions that are held online.

The course is relevant for both primary and high school teachers as it presents a conceptualisation of mentoring that can be applied to supporting student teachers completing their teaching practice in different phases and grades.

Ideally groups of teachers from the same school should consider completing the course together as the course encourages schools and teachers work together to develop a school programme that can be used to support student teachers in each unique school context during their teaching practice.

Course dates and times.

1 Contact Session 1

Course preparation/Pre-reading: Thursday 26 February 2026

(Online with MS Teams)

17:00-18:30

1.1 Completion of Initial Understanding Task: 2 – 12 March

1.2 Unit 1: Understanding Teaching Practice : 2 – 12 March

2 Contact Session 2

Online with MS Teams:

Thursday 19 March 2026

17:00-18:00

2.1. Unit 2: Mentoring and Coaching.

13 March – 09 April 2026

3 Contact Session 3

Online with MS Teams:

 Thursday 09 April 2026

17:00-18:00

3.1. Unit 3: Developing evaluative criteria for student teachers (Part 1)      

3.2. Unit 4: Developing evaluative criteria for student teachers (Part 2)      

10 April –07 May 2026

4 Contact Session 4

Online with MS Teams:

Thursday 07 May

17:00-18:00

4.1 Unit 4: Developing evaluative criteria for student teachers (Part 2) (cont.)

7 May - 28 May 2026

5 Contact Session 5

Online with MS Teams:

Thursday 28 May 2026

17:00-18:00

5.1  Unit 5: Mentoring and Coaching in practice  29 May – 26 June 2026

6 Compulsory Contact Session 6

Face-to-face at CTLI   

Monday 29 June 2026 - Tuesday 30 June 2026

CTLI (Kuils river) 08:30-15:30

6.1. Unit 6: Concluding the course

Completion of Developed Understanding Task         

29 June – 03 July 2026

7 Completion and closing of Teacher Mentor Course: 

Monday 06 July 2026

All Google Classroom activities submitted

*NB! Should you miss more than ONE ONLINE SESSION- you will be requested to reapply for the next course.

*NB! confirmation link: https://forms.gle/XsoZU195EPuLDro77