Analysis of Mentoring Practices Experienced by Student Teachers during Teaching Practice: A Case of Evelyn Hone College

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyse mentoring practices experienced by student teachers at Evelyn Hone College within the five factor mentoring model for effective teaching during teaching practice. The first objective was to analyse student teachers’ experiences of mentoring practices during teaching practice. The other objective was to determine the differences in student teachers’ experiences of mentoring practices by background variables (gender and programme of study). This study was quantitative in nature and employed a cross-sectional survey design. The study population was 474 third-year student teachers of Evelyn Hone College. A sample of 155 was drawn using stratified random sampling. Data were collected through questionnaires and were analysed using SPSS version 20. Means and standard deviations were used to determine whether the experiences of student teachers were positive or negative. Manny-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to test the hypotheses. The study revealed that student teachers had positive experiences in all the five mentoring factors (personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modelling and feedback). However, student teachers were found not to have been adequately mentored in specific pedagogical knowledge areas such as classroom management, teaching strategies, and questioning techniques. The findings further indicated that there were no differences between gender of student teachers and experience of mentoring practices. The study also found significant differences between programme of study and two of the five mentoring practices (personal attributes and modelling). The study concluded that student teachers had more positive experiences in personal attributes, modelling and feedback than in pedagogical knowledge and system requirement. The study also concluded that Programme of study is a major factor in student teacher mentoring. It was recommended that there was need to develop expectations of mentor teachers during teaching practice. The expectations should specifically address student teachers’ needs in system requirement and pedagogical knowledge.