Annual User Survey Results
2021-22
Written by Rob Caudwell, Co-Founder of Penrose Education
13 September 2022
Mentor Experience
At the end of the Summer term, we sent out a survey to all trainees and mentors using Mosaic. We know that to be a truly effective ITT Platform, Mosaic needs to provide a fantastic user experience for these end-users. We want to make meeting course expectations effortless, and encourage best mentoring/coaching practices whether under direction from the training provider or not.
We were therefore keen to know how trainees and mentors perceived using Mosaic, and the results are both positive and illuminating.
The change in ITT Inspection Framework and the new Quality Requirements the DfE is planning to introduce have both led to an increased focus on the role of mentors – particularly their role in helping trainees to connect their experiences on placement to their training provider’s overall curriculum. We were particularly interested in finding out whether Mosaic was helping mentors to make these connections, as well as how we were impacting mentor relationships with their trainees and – crucially – mentor workload!
We asked Mentors a series of questions to help understand their experience of using Mosaic. Here’s what they told us:
To what extent has Mosaic helped you understand the ITT Course provider’s expectations of you in your role?
To what extent has Mosaic helped you understand the ITT Course provider’s curriculum framework?
To what extent do you feel Mosaic has helped improve the effectiveness of mentoring/tutoring with the trainee(s) you work with?
We’re thrilled that the use of Mosaic seems to be helping mentors understand their overall course curricula and supporting their mentor-trainee relationships, while also reducing workload!
While we are proud of these results, we’d really like to see even further shifts towards significant impact and reduced workload. Our dream is that Mosaic will act as a foundation for excellent coaching and mentoring practice, so we’ll be working hard to understand how we can make this a reality. We are already planning and implementing a range of new features this year to further support mentors. Do get in touch to hear more about the changes we are making.
We also asked mentors for some qualitative feedback. Loads of mentors talked how easy and intuitive the platform was to use, and how helpful it was to have everything they needed in one place. Here are a couple of our favourite responses:
Mosaic allowed me to see past progress in other schools and see where areas of development were before the trainee arrived. It also provided me with helpful prompts and allowed me to effectively monitor targets during mentor meetings.
It was great to have all info in one place. It put the emphasis on the trainee to be organised and add to Mosaic. I could just oversee and add comments. Structure was good and it was easy to use.
Mosaic was really useful to give feedback on following end of term review points.
By being able to see all of the targets that my trainee has been set over the year, I have been able to monitor his progress and see how this relates to areas where I think he needs additional support. I have also been able to monitor the evidence that he has gathered and provide feedback throughout the year, instead of a mad rush at the end of training term.
Trainee Experience
Alongside the changed emphasis to mentoring, it is also clear that the upcoming Quality Requirements are likely to emphasise how important it is for trainees to understand the structure and content of their provider’s curriculum – especially in relation to their experiences while on placement. Trainees will be expected to understand how they are progressing through the course and how this progress will be assessed. We wanted to know whether Mosaic was helping trainees to do this, to better understand their provider’s expectations, their course’s curriculum and structure, and how they were making progress through this course.
We also asked trainees a series of questions. Here are the results:
To what extent has Mosaic helped you understand the ITT Course provider’s expectations of you?
To what extent has Mosaic helped you understand the ITT Course provider’s curriculum framework?
To what extent do you feel Mosaic has helped improve your relationship with your mentor?
To what extent do you feel Mosaic has helped you understand how you are developing as a trainee?
To what extent do you feel Mosaic has helped you understand what you should be focusing on in a given week?
We are delighted that Mosaic seems to score highly in terms of impact across all our key areas, with at least two-thirds of trainees stating medium to significant impact for each measure. We are particularly pleased that ‘understanding course expectations’ scored most highly – as we see that as the lynch pin for everything else!
We are not surprised that trainees felt that Mosaic didn’t have as big an impact on their relationship with their mentor as some of the other factors we asked them about. Tech platforms can’t (and shouldn’t try to!) replace genuine human connection. But we are still really pleased that less than 25% of trainees said Mosaic had a low impact, and none said it had a negative impact. We are really interested to continue exploring ways that Mosaic can enable fruitful trainee-mentor partnerships.
As with mentors, we also asked trainees for some qualitative feedback. And again, ease of use and “having everything in one place” were by far the most common responses we had! We were also really pleased to see how many trainees told us that Mosaic had helped them to make connections between their practice on placement and their progress through their course’s curriculum.
Mosaic has had a very positive impact on my organisation and time management skills. As well as this, it has helped me to become a very reflective practitioner.
Amazing platform. I was able to have everything easily accessible for whenever I needed. All members off staff loved it also.
Mosaic helped me stay organised and on top of my course. It also reduced my anxiety as I know Mosaic stored all my work.
Helped me to keep track of my targets and to visually see which ones have been completed and how.
Easy and clear to see all of your work in one place, and access it at all times.
How do we do it?
Interested in finding out more about how we help mentors and trainees to understand a provider’s curriculum and course expectations – while supporting their mentoring/coaching relationship and reducing workload? We’d love to show you.
Please get in touch to request a demo or to sign up for one of our upcoming taster sessions.
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