Physics Partners Mentoring Scheme
As a teacher of physics in a school, it can be very helpful to have another, more experienced and knowledgeable physics teacher to go to for support and advice. Ideally this would be a friendly physics teacher in the classroom next door, but we know that in many schools this many not be possible because there are just not enough specialist physics teachers around. Physics Partners are piloting a mentoring scheme for 2023-24 and are looking for mentees.
We will pair up teachers of physics who would like to have access to this kind of support, with experienced/retired teachers who are willing and able to provide it. We are particularly keen to support non-specialists and ECTs. This mentoring will be led by you and respond to your learning needs. It will take place in ways that are convenient to you e.g. by email, text message, video call or in person. It will be provided at no cost and by someone from outside your own school who is completely independent of any early career teacher assessment or appraisal process. The mentor will make themselves available regularly to answer questions and offer advice on issues such as: physics subject knowledge, teaching particular physics topics, lesson planning, using physics equipment, pupil misconceptions etc.
The mentors are all volunteers and are carefully selected by Physics Partners in conjunction with Associate Professor Dan Cottle, a teacher educator from the University of Birmingham. All the mentors have significant experience and expertise in physics teaching over many years and are very keen to share that knowledge. This type of mentoring has been shown in the past to be useful but we are also keen to understand if and how it might help you, so as part of being involved, over the course of an academic year, we also ask you to take part in a study of the impact of the mentoring led by Dan Cottle, Associate Professor of Physics Education at the University of Birmingham. A previous similar study on the same theme is available to read here.
To register interest in participating or just to find out more, please fill in your details below.
