Value of Mentor Professional Learning Through a Digital Micro-Credential in a School-University Partnership

Effective school-university partnerships not only play an important role in improving the quality of initial teacher education but have the capacity to positively impact practice more broadly in schools. This chapter explores an innovative approach to school-university partnerships through the development of a digital micro-credential professional learning program for mentor teachers aimed specifically at building mentors’ understanding of evidence-based assessment to support differentiated teaching practice. Through a narrative inquiry approach and the reflections from participating mentors and partnership leaders, the data analysed suggest that there are positive impacts across the partnership’s actors and ecosystem. The micro-credential provides upskilling of mentors that then improves the level of support to pre-service teachers when using data to differentiate their teaching, a key aim for the program. Yet, there are broader impacts of the program across the partnership, including changing teaching practices within the participating schools and implications for the university’s academics and their work with teachers and pre-service teachers.