Using interviews and concept maps to access mentor teachers' practical knowledge

Mentor teachers' practical knowledge often remains implicit for the student teachers they supervise. Practical knowledge consists of various cognitions that clarify mentors' own lessons and the feedback given to student teachers. The aim of the present study was to evaluate two instruments, the interview and concept map, for accessing practical knowledge in the context of teacher education. Seventy student teachers participating in a postgraduate teacher education programme in the Netherlands interviewed their mentors and discussed a concept map made by these mentors. They summarised their mentors' explicated practical knowledge about 'teaching' and 'order', wrote down their learning experiences, and evaluated both instruments. Several categories of learning experiences and evaluations were derived from the reports that were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The summaries of practical knowledge were analysed using two distinctions: (1) 'absolute' versus 'situational' and (2) 'descriptive' versus 'analytical' statements. At least half of the student teachers evaluated interviewing and concept mapping positively for accessing practical knowledge. The analysis showed that concept mapping had elicited more reasons underlying teaching than interviewing. It was concluded that both instruments can help student teachers to access practical knowledge, each revealing qualitatively different information: interviewing yielded more concrete, practical information while that produced by concept mapping was more abstract.