An analysis of mentoring practices experienced by student teachers during teaching practice: a case of Evelyn Hone College
Date
2019
Authors
Munjita, Milton
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Zambia
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. 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 self-administered 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 as to whether there were differences between student teachers and their background variables (gender and programme of study).
Findings indicated 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, uestioning 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 were adequately mentored with
exceptions in some individual pedagogical and system requirements mentoring practices. The study recommended that mentor teachers should adequately mentor student teachers in the area of pedagogical knowledge especially in classroom management, questioning techniques, and teaching strategies. Key words: student teacher, mentoring practices, teaching practice, experiences.
Description
Keywords
Mentoring in education--Zambia