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Australia has delineated a new direction for teacher education by embedding mentoring programs for teachers who support early-careers teachers as a system approach. This case study investigated how mentors after involvement in a mentoring professional learning program focused on goal setting with beginning teachers in their schools. Data were analysed from six mentors' interviews using semi-structured questions and archival documents associated with the mentoring program. Findings revealed that negotiated goal setting facilitates potentially successful teaching practices that align to career stage standards. Other findings associated with goal setting are reported around: (1) mentor-mentee relationships, (2) roles, skills and responsibilities, (3) specific goal setting, and (4) the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Further research (qualitative paired mentor-mentee partnerships and large quantitative studies) will provide insights on effective uses of goal setting that align with standardised frameworks and connect with effective teaching practices.

Reviews into teacher education call for new models that develop preservice teachers' practical knowledge and skills. The study involved 9 mentor teachers and 14 mentees (final-year preservice teachers) working in a new teacher education model, the School-Community Integrated Learning (SCIL) pathway, and analysed data from a Likert survey with extended written responses. Despite minor discrepancies between mentors and mentees' agreement on the experiences mentees received during the SCIL pathway, findings indicated 100% agreement on 8 of the 27 survey items for addressing the practicalities of learning how to teach. Indeed, 70% or more mentees agreed that they had a range of experiences across the five categories (i.e., personal-professional skill development, understandings of system requirements, teaching practices, student behaviour and reflective practices). Written responses outlined that preservice teachers began to recognise the breadth of teachers' roles and responsibilities. The SCIL pathway was noted as a cost-effective model that assisted to fill some gaps indicated within general practicum and internship models.

Australia continues to face teaching shortages in rural schools. Indeed, preservice teachers may be reluctant to apply for rural teaching positions, particularly as most have had no rural teaching experiences. What may motivate non-rural preservice teachers to seek employment in rural schools? This study investigates 17 preservice teachers' first experiences of teaching and living in rural areas. These second and third-year preservice teachers were involved in a five-day rural experience, which included interacting with local communities, living with host families, observing teaching practices, and teaching rural middle-school students. These self-nominated preservice teachers were placed in a variety of rural schools centred around a feeder high school. Data from written transcripts before their rural placements and reflections on their teaching and rural experiences indicated very significant attitudinal changes for teaching in rural areas and dispelled misconceptions about rural living and teaching. Non-rural universities can contribute towards motivating their preservice teachers to seek employment in rural areas. Providing these preservice teachers with a rural experience can create attitudinal changes for teaching and living in rural areas.

The Australian Federal Government's call for another teacher education inquiry aims to investigate preservice teacher preparedness for teaching. Art education was selected for this study as the teaching of art education in primary schools occurs in less than ideal conditions and may often be avoided by generalist primary teachers (Russell-Bowie, 2002). Eighty-seven final-year preservice teachers were surveyed on their perceptions of their preparedness for teaching primary art education at the conclusion of their Bachelor of Education program. The 39 survey items were derived from the New South Wales' Creative Arts K-6 State Syllabus (Board of Studies, 2000) across four stage levels (i.e., early stage 1, stage 1, stage 2, and stage 3). Percentages and mean scale scores suggested that these final-year preservice teachers believed they were generally prepared to teach art education in primary schools as a result of a preservice teacher education visual arts unit. Nevertheless, more than 10% of preservice teachers indicated they could not agree or strongly agree that they could provide 20 of the 39 teaching practices advocated by the syllabus and 20% indicated this for 7 of the 39 teaching practices. Tertiary education institutions need to be proactive in responding to the challenge of determining preservice teachers' preparedness for teaching. Surveys linked to a state syllabus may assist in assessing preservice teachers' perceptions of their preparedness for teaching and may provide valuable information for further development of tertiary education coursework. (Contains 5 tables and 4 graphs.)

Tensions can occur in the mentor-mentee relationship during school-based professional experiences that require problem solving. What are the tensions for mentor teachers in preservice teacher education and how might these tensions be resolved? This qualitative study collected data from 31 high school mentor teachers about tensions experienced with preservice teachers during professional experience programmes. Three themes emerged around the causes of tensions (low- to high-level conflicts) within the mentor-mentee relationship, namely: (1) personal issues (i.e. incompatibility, personality differences, language); (2) pedagogical issues (i.e. lack of pedagogical and content knowledge, differences in teaching styles); and (3) professional issues. Strategies to resolve these tensions include: maintaining a positive professional relationship, regular feedback as a way to address issues, sharing responsibility and empowerment, and using empathy for specific situations. As a theoretical contribution, this study provides a model around low- and high-level conflict associated with personal, pedagogical and professional (3Ps) issues. The study focused on mentors only and further research is required about the tensions preservice teachers experience with their mentors and ways in which these tensions can be resolved.

Objectives To build a data set capturing the whole breast cancer screening journey from individual breast cancer screening records to outcomes and assess data quality. Methods Routine screening records (invitation, attendance, test results) from all 79 English NHS breast screening centres between January 1, 1988 and March 31, 2018 were linked to cancer registry (cancer characteristics and treatment) and national mortality data. Data quality was assessed using comparability, validity, timeliness, and completeness. Results Screening records were extracted from 76/79 English breast screening centres, 3/79 were not possible due to software issues. Data linkage was successful from 1997 after introduction of a universal identifier for women (NHS number). Prior to 1997 outcome data are incomplete due to linkage issues, reducing validity. Between January 1, 1997 and March 31, 2018, a total of 11 262 730 women were offered screening of whom 9 371 973 attended at least one appointment, with 139 million person-years of follow-up (a median of 12.4 person years for each woman included) with 73 810 breast cancer deaths and 1 111 139 any-cause deaths. Comparability to reference data sets and internal validity were demonstrated. Data completeness was high for core screening variables (>99%) and main cancer outcomes (>95%). Conclusions The ATHENA-M project has created a large high-quality and representative data set of individual women's screening trajectories and outcomes in England from 1997 to 2018, data before 1997 are lower quality. Advances in knowledge This is the most complete data set of English breast screening records and outcomes constructed to date, which can be used to evaluate and optimize screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retention rates and stress levels of beginning teachers are of concern. Well-planned induction programs can assist beginning teachers to make the transition successfully into the profession, which may increase retention rates. This qualitative, year-long study aims to explore and describe the induction experiences of eight beginning teachers as they negotiated their first year of teaching. Data gathered through interviews and emails indicated that these teachers required further development on: catering for individual differences, assessing in terms of outcomes, relating to parents, relating to the wider community, and understanding school policies; however, relating to students and understanding legal responsibilities and duty of care were not issues. At the conclusion of their first year only one beginning teacher was assisted by a mentor (veteran teacher) on whole-school programming, and planning for improving teaching with opportunities to visit other classrooms. This was also the only beginning teacher who received a reduced workload in order to meet with the mentor to discuss pedagogical developments. The inadequate support provided to beginning teachers in this study highlights the need for principals and school staff to reassess induction processes, which includes providing time, funding, mentoring support and clear guidelines for a quality induction program. (Contains 3 tables.)

Effective mentoring of EFL preservice teachers may advance EFL teaching practices. Five factors for mentoring have been identified, namely, personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modeling, and feedback. An empirically based survey instrument focused on 106 Vietnamese preservice teachers' perceptions of their mentoring for EFL teaching across these five factors. Apart from acceptable Cronbach alphas for four of the five factors (system requirements was 0.08 below the accepted 0.70 level), analysis revealed that more than 50% of these preservice teachers perceived that they had not received mentoring for developing their teaching of English writing on 29 of the 34 survey items. Mentoring practices in this study varied; consequently, EFL mentors may require guidance for enhancing their practices. In addition, the instrument linked to the five-factor mentoring model may assist in identifying mentors' needs for devising professional development programs.

Objective: The Covid-19 pandemic created a backlog of women awaiting an invitation for breast screening in the UK. To recover in a timely fashion, the National Health Service programme opted to issue open invitations (OI) to women rather than the standard pre-booked timed appointments (TA). Historically, OIs have been shown to result in lower uptake. The aim of this study was to make use of a natural experiment to compare uptake in groups sent an OI with those sent a TA during a period when both invitation methods were in use. Methods: Women invited for routine screening at one of the six London breast screening services from September 2020 to March 2021 were included and grouped according to the type of invitation they had received (TA or OI). The outcome was attendance within 6 months of opening the screening episode. Data were analysed by logistic regression. Results: During the period of the study, 78,192 (32.5%) women received a TA and 162,680 (67.5%) received an OI. In the TA group, 47,391 (60.6%) attended within six months of offered appointment and in the OI group 86,430 (53.1%) attended. This difference was significant (p < 0.001). The odds ratio (95% CI) for the attended outcome was 1.44 (1.33–1.55) adjusted for differences in deprivation and for invitation category (first invitation or subsequent invitation). Conclusions: This study supports the view that TA delivers a higher uptake than OI. It suggests that during this period over 12,000 women in London, who would have been expected to attend if given the standard TA, did not attend their appointment having received an OI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity levels and mortality from breast cancer are higher in more deprived areas of the UK, despite lower breast cancer incidence. Supplemental imaging for women with dense breasts has been proposed as a potential improvement to screening, but it is not clear how stratification by percentage mammographic density (%MD) would be reflected across socioeconomic groups. This study aims to clarify the associations between breast composition (dense and fatty tissue) and socioeconomic status in a multi-ethnic screening population.Demographic characteristics were collected for 62,913 participants in a UK breast screening programme (age, ethnicity, Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD)). Automated mammographic measurements were derived: dense volume (DV), non-dense volume (NDV) and percent density (%MD). Correlations between deprivation and mammographic composition were examined before and after adjustment for age, ethnicity and NDV, using non-dense breast volume as a proxy for body mass index (BMI).There was negligible correlation between deprivation and DV (r = 0.017; P < 0.001 in all cases), but NDV increased with increasing deprivation (Pearson r = 0.101). Correlations were weaker in the Asian and Chinese ethnic groups. %MD decreased with deprivation (r = −0.094) and adjustment for ethnicity did not alter the association between %MD and IMD (relative change, most to least deprived quintile IMD: 1.18; 95% confidence interval: 1.16, 1.21).Deprivation-related differences in %MD in the screening population are largely explained by differences in breast fat volume (NDV) which reflects BMI. Women in more deprived areas, where obesity and breast cancer mortality rates are higher, have increased breast adiposity and may miss out on risk-adapted screening if stratification is based solely on %MD or BIRADS classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe how three English breast screening services responded to the 2018 Patient Notification Exercise, a national intervention whereby women who had potentially missed their final screening invitation were offered new appointments. To compare key performance indicators for women thus invited with key performance indicators for women invited routinely in the same period. Methods: Uptake, assessment and cancer detection for 9439 women aged over 70 in the Patient Notification Exercise were compared with key performance indicators for 14,824 women, of similar age, who were routinely invited in the same period, using chi squared (χ2) tests. Invitation cancellation and attendance levels were also compared. Results: Uptake was significantly lower among Patient Notification Exercise women sent a new, timed appointment than for women who were routinely invited (67.3% and 70.8%, respectively, p = 0.001). Assessment rates were higher for Patient Notification Exercise women (5.2% vs. 4.4%, p = 0.192) as were cancer detection rates (1.87% vs. 1.28%, p = 0.080). Services achieved national round-length standards for routine invitations during and after the Patient Notification Exercise but screen-to-assessment standards were breached (80%) in the smallest service. More Patient Notification Exercise women than routinely invited women rebooked appointments (43.6% and 33.2%, respectively); they were also slightly more likely to miss their appointments (24.5% vs. 21.2%). Conclusions: Screening invitation performance can be maintained whilst responding to an additional demand of ∼5%. Larger services that cover a compact geographical area may find it easier to respond. Women affected by the incident are not more likely to attend but may require relatively more assessment capacity in incidents where invitations have been delayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]