Peer Observation and mentoring in the QuID Teacher Development Programme at Sapienza University of Rome.

The Working Group for Teaching Quality and Innovation (QuID) was set up in 2018 with the specific aim of looking after the pre-service teacher education of newly recruited teachers (RTDB) at Sapienza. To this end, the QuID Teacher Development Programme has been implemented as a two-year theoretical-practical training programme during which the student teacher or mentee is assigned to a small group, which is supported by a different mentor for each of the years of training. The first-year mentors work alongside groups of student teachers who are deliberately heterogeneous in terms of the fields of knowledge in which they specialise. On the contrary, the second-year mentors flank homogeneous groups of student teachers, i.e. composed of lecturers whose ‘Scientific-Disciplinary Sectors’ (SSD) of reference are homogeneous or refer to contiguous cultural domains. The second-year mentors also have homogeneous disciplinary competences with the group. This organisation of the training programme is based on the assumption that there are teaching methods and assessment strategies that are transversal and must therefore be part of the 'portfolio' of competences of every teacher, regardless of their field of specialisation. For example, if we wish to apply the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL - PUA), in order to design truly inclusive lessons that take into account flexible ways of learning, which differ from student to student, it is not strictly necessary for the group of student teachers to be homogeneous. On the contrary, heterogeneity may constitute a stimulus to experiment new methods, learnt during the peer observation process. On the other hand, it is also important to encourage the application of new methods of engaging students and promoting deep learning in one's own field of specialisation, so that each student teacher is encouraged to apply the methods experienced in the training sessions or observed during peer observation to his or her teaching environment. The main aspect of the activity carried out within the groups is, in fact, the mutual observation of the teaching activities of the other student teachers and their mentor. Two plenary meetings at the beginning and end of the year complete the programme.