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When assistant principals experience positive mentoring and professional development, they can obtain valuable knowledge and leadership skills from these learning opportunities. To better understand the formal and informal mechanisms assistant principals use to expand their knowledge and skills, the purpose of this paper is to examine important advice mentors provided for them and the professional learning activities that prepare them for their school leadership roles.

Semi-structured interviews with 69 elementary, middle, and high school assistant principals were conducted. Questions focused on the advice mentors have provided and significant learning experiences that have aided in their growth as school leaders.

Results reveal that assistant principals greatly appreciate insights from mentors about how to enhance decision-making skills, improve people and communication skills, reflect on their personal qualities and capabilities, and clarify their values and beliefs. Their preferred means for professional growth is to work with former and current administrators they trust and respect.

This study goes beyond examining the structural and procedural aspects of mentoring by describing highly valued advice provided by mentors affecting assistant principals’ professional development and growth. For mentoring to be effective, this study suggests that mentors should provide opportunities for assistant principals to develop their decision-making, people, and communication skills as well to clarify their personal capabilities, values, and beliefs.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an innovative model of mentoring that evolved over the past ten years as a result of experience, research and self-study. This research, conducted in Orthodox Jewish day schools will raise awareness of potential benefits of mentoring as an effective means for supporting Q1 teachers’ classroom effectiveness and sense of well-being. Background research is presented on mentoring as a powerful tool in supporting teachers throughout their careers. An original aspect of this paper is the analysis of exemplary cross-cultural mentoring intentional training, ongoing support and solicitation of feedback. Findings are based on samples from data collected over several years and are analyzed using qualitative tools. The authors discuss implications from two published self-studies of an exemplary mentoring model in which mentors worked with teachers and explore considerations for teacher well-being.

A qualitative–narrative approach was chosen for these studies. The findings were drawn from three sources of data: open-ended questionnaires, end-of-year letters teachers wrote to their principals reporting on changes in their classroom practices and in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers, mentors and administrators in each of the schools participating in the program.

The two self-studies, in tandem with the teachers’ surveys and reflections, illustrate how the teachers viewed the connection between the mentoring they received and their own professional growth. Overall, teachers reported a general satisfaction as a result of participating in the mentoring program. Many noted that the program provided a useful framework offering a personalized approach to their professional development. The teachers were directed to frame their own learning agendas by setting their own instructional improvement goals and asking meaningful questions relevant to their particular classroom situations.

Limited sample size and private religious school environment might put limits on implications.

The presented model has universal implications. A personalized mentoring model, with supplementary professional development sessions geared toward topics supporting well-being, can be applied in any educational setting. Schools leaders must find ways to foster teacher satisfaction and keep teachers engaged in their own learning. Offering teachers a personalized approach that supports continued growth while encouraging them to set their own learning agendas can serve as a vital bridge to teacher satisfaction and well-being.

The findings of this paper have implications for school improvement, cross-cultural mentoring, mentor training and teacher well-being.

Original aspects of this paper include: the self-study of exemplary mentoring program, application of mentoring in cross-cultural environments, teacher well-being in private schools and mentoring of teachers in Orthodox Jewish schools.

Teacher residency programs (TRPs) offer an alternative to traditional models of teacher preparation with the aim of developing teachers to work and stay in hard-to-staff schools. Research on these extended field placement programs is limited and typically examines program outcomes or the experiences and development of the pre-service teachers, or residents. This study focuses on a relatively unexamined area of TRPs to explore how providing mentoring and coaching supports the professional development of the in-service TRP coaches.

This study employed a qualitative case study design. Fourteen coaches in an urban teacher residency program were interviewed over a three-year period. Using a semi-structured protocol, participants’ experiences and the influence of program participation were explored.

Findings revealed that coaches experienced professional growth in their instructional practices and deepened or renewed their commitment to teaching. Program components such as evidence-based observational tools and protocols encouraged reflective practice and (re)evaluation of teaching that contributed to beliefs about improved practice.

In-service teachers experience development in their pedagogical practices and may feel a renewed sense of professional engagement through serving as a coach for a pre-service teacher. Additionally, hard-to-staff schools that partner with TRPs to recruit and develop new teachers may find an added benefit in retaining a greater number of veteran teachers who participate as coaches in residency pre-service education programs.

Much of the teacher residency literature explores the outcomes and experiences of pre-service teacher residents and has little focus on how these programs may benefit TRP coaches. Coaches have an essential role in the implementation and influence of residency programs on pre-service teachers, yet little is understood about how the act of coaching impacts the in-service teacher coach. This article suggests that coaches experience meaningful professional benefits of participation in TRPs and has implications for effective residency program design.

The purpose of this paper is to explore ways in which learning and development (L&D) professionals use reflective practice to promote the function of L&D and their own professional growth. The claim that L&D practitioners need to develop their reflective ability to make sense of their own practice is well-argued in the literature, but few studies focus on an in-depth individual self-reflection and its impact on professional growth.

An autoethnography and reflective practice design was deployed. The data was collected by sending a semi-structured, pre-set question as a ‘reflective conversation’ to an L&D manager and a 10-hour tape recording of personal reflection over three months.[AQ1] Data was sanitised, transcribed and edited, and a narrative data analysis method was used to analyse the data developed into reflective narratives.

The authors find that reflective practice emerges through gradual reflective patterns that define the circumstances surrounding the reflection, the content, exploration and interpretation and confirming the fulfilling of the reflection.

This paper offers the journey of an L&D manager working in the hotel industry in India. Through a set of reflective practices, including introspection and reflexivity, the manager considers the changes she has experienced. The paper contributes to the literature on reflective practice based on promoting the L&D function as an essential part of the horizontal integration of human resource management in organisations. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Professional dispositions must be cultivated through focused self-reflection and targeted, authentic, internship experiences prior to entering the teaching profession. Continued development through mentoring during the clinical internship can enhance the effectiveness of pre-service teacher candidates as instructional leaders. The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique experiences found to be successful in mentoring pre-service teachers from student to professional during an authentic, yearlong internship experience.

Intern participants in this pilot study completed an inventory that measured professional dispositions five times during an internship experience. Data were analyzed using a mixed methods study design.

Results of the study determined that intern participants held unrealistic views of teaching and did not recognize the importance of dispositional development prior to focused mentoring throughout the year of clinical internship. One central finding in this study is that change and growth about perceptions of professional dispositions can be developed through focused mentoring.

Mentoring within the teacher preparation program can help in the transition of understanding professional growth and development, attitudes, and the view of complex behaviors. The dispositions necessary for effective teaching can be honed through cultural and clinical experiences, continual self-reflection, constructive feedback on evaluations of teaching, and targeted mentoring before beginning the clinical student internship and throughout the experience.

This study aims to examine the factors of growth‐oriented atmosphere in a Finnish polytechnic institution of higher education with categorical exploratory factor analysis, multidimensional scaling and Bayesian unsupervised model‐based visualization.

This study was designed to examine employee perceptions of how their managers create conditions that support professional growth and learning, and how the employees perceive their growth motivation and commitment to the organization. Data were gathered from 447 employees with the Growth‐oriented Atmosphere Questionnaire in a Finnish polytechnic institution of higher education.

Results showed that the theoretical four‐group classification of the growth‐oriented atmosphere factors was supported by the empirical evidence. Results further showed that managers and teachers had higher growth motivation and level of commitment to work than other personnel, including job titles such as cleaner, caretaker, accountant and computer support. Employees across all job titles in the organization, who have temporary or part‐time contracts, had higher self‐reported growth motivation and commitment to work and organization than their established colleagues.

Leaders in various organizations may benefit from learning what is the current professional growth status of diverse employee groups, and in understanding the potential differences in employee growth motivation.

This study contributes to an understanding of organizational growth and learning as a non‐linear process. The statistical non‐linear modeling approach is novel providing research and practical example of how to use these techniques in practice.

This paper presents a comprehensive conception of principals’ growth that is based on four psychological perspectives: humanistic fulfilment/actualisation, psycho‐dynamic, moral/identity development, and adaptive cognitive development. This conception views principals’ development as a journey in which principals attempt to master challenges in four distinct, yet related, domains: fulfilling basic needs and actualising potentialities, learning to cope with and moderate extreme, anxiety‐based strivings, forming reflection‐based individualised moral and educational vision, and constructing adaptation‐promoting knowledge and skills. For each perspective, we present its goal of growth, personal qualities reflecting principals’ growth and resulting from it, and ways of enhancing principals’ growth. It is proposed that a fully‐fledged growth process occurs when principals develop along the lines outlined according to all four perspectives. Discussion of the relations among the growth processes highlighted by the four perspectives suggests that it might be particularly difficult for principals to develop in the morality/identity domain. The last part of the paper focuses on determinants of principals’ growth that should receive more attention in research and in practice.

The purpose of this study was to determine not-yet-tenured university library faculty members’ views of 27 methods their department chair may use to support and enhance the faculty member's professional development. The methods were derived from earlier qualitative research on department chairs in higher education. While academic teaching department chair roles have been the subject of the research literature for many years, little research has addressed library faculty perceptions of the department chair's role. The survey instrument used consisted of two parts: (1) a demographics section, consisting of five questions; and (2) a researcher-developed survey of faculty perceptions of the department chairs’ role in faculty development. Survey participants were asked to rate the importance of methods chairs may use in enhancing the professional activities of faculty. According to the not-yet-tenured library faculty members responding to this study, a chair engaging in the most important practices to enhance their faculty's professional development would be one who utilizes good communication, while acting as an administrative advocate.

The purpose of this review is to add to the discussion of assistant principals (APs), a position that has been under‐represented in the professional literature.

An extensive search was undertaken on assistant principals, vice principals, and deputy head teachers from various sources, including journals, conference papers, doctoral dissertations, ERIC documents, articles from professional publications and organizations, and relevant books and chapters. Each document was thoroughly analyzed and common themes were identified.

The assistant principalship is a unique entity because the position lacks a precise job description yet entails numerous tasks to ensure the success of a school. Although the assistant principal is a critical leader in schools, the position is underutilized and under‐researched. This review analyzes the roles, responsibilities, training, socialization, and typologies of the assistant principal.

As a result of this research, it is suggested that the role of the assistant principal needs to be reconfigured. Additional research is needed in the areas of training, professional development, and transition to the principalship.

This article presents a unique comparison of the roles of APs throughout the past 30 years both in the USA and abroad. In addition, after examining the lack of university training and professional development for the assistant principalship, suggestions are made as to how APs can be better prepared for this critical leadership position.

The purpose of this paper is to report on ongoing research examining the current level of self-management of library and information science (LIS) professionals in federal universities in Nigeria. The long-term objective of the study is to determine the effect of self-management on information services delivery of LIS professionals.

A descriptive survey method was adopted to gather data from the LIS professionals in the selected 24 universities. The questionnaire was administered on 429 professionals (census) and all were received, processed, analysed and the results presented.

The study reveals that majority of respondents have high level of self-management and applied relevant strategies that enabled them identify opportunities and act on them for personal and professional growth.

The study was limited to practising professionals in the federal university libraries but has implications for implementing continuing professional development for all professionals in similar institutions across Nigeria.

The study places emphasis on professionals, library management and library schools that they cannot downplay the relevance of self-management in the workplace, consequently training should be ongoing.

The future of LIS professionals has not been viewed in the light of adopting self-management competence on such a broad scale, and with a view to assessing how this skill can help change the perception of professionals to its relevant contribution to personal development and professional growth.