NEST - Foundations and results of the project "Novice Educator Support and Training"
This series documents the key findings of the Novice Educator Support and Training (NEST) research project during its three-year duration (03/2021-03/2024).
Within the framework of this project, a mentor training was developed to strengthen mentors in providing optimal mentoring support to beginning teachers working in schools in challenging situations or "disadvantaged schools". The project was carried out in seven European education systems in parallel (Bulgaria, Belgium with Wallonia and Flanders, Austria, Romania and Spain with Catalonia and the Madrid region). Under the lead of Prof. Hermann J. Abs (Chair of Educational Research and Schooling) the NEST project was scientifically monitored and evaluated at the University of Duisburg-Essen by Eva Anderson-Park, Myrte van Veldhuizen and Marcus Kindlinger.
The first volume provides an overview of the NEST project, addressing the project goals, the theoretical background, the evaluation design, the development of the survey instruments, and a description of the sample. Among other things, the existing mentoring structures in the educational systems participating in the project are presented. Furthermore, the concept of "disadvantaged schools" is theoretically reviewed, and the indicators used by the European countries participating in the project to characterize disadvantaged schools are systematically elaborated and compared. The individual chapters are each supplemented with data from the first survey (baseline data).
The second volume presents the interim results of the project after one year. The report is divided into two main parts, the first focusing on the evaluation of mentor training and focusing on the mentors' perspective, while the second part looks at mentoring from the perspective of beginning teachers. Both parts draw on data from the second online survey conducted at the end of the first school year in 2022. The report concludes with a discussion that draws conclusions from the findings and raises questions about the implementation of mentoring programs in a disadvantaged school context.
The third volume is expected to be published in spring 2024 and will focus on the professional development of mentors and their supervised beginning teachers over the period of the project.
