Abstract
Mentoring
is an essential component of the student achievement/performance. The support
provided by highly trained mentors leads to the success of learner perfection. There
are five factors for mentoring which are useful for teachers mentoring to
achieve best outcome. These are system requirements, modeling, personal
attributes, pedagogical knowledge, and feedback.
The
Mentee Understandings of Student achievement/performance survey was given to
learner supervisors upon the conclusion of their student
achievement/performance experience at GCUF. Convergence of quantitative and
qualitative data showed that mentoring practices implemented by the mentors to
proceed the progress of learner supervision. Although no statistically
differences found among the teaching mentoring and non-teaching mentoring
sub-groups, results revealed important details of the learner supervisors’
views.
Acknowledgements
All
credit goes to Dr. Shabir Saleemi, whose help and encouragement was always
there when I needed it.
I
would also like to acknowledge my family for showing unfailing patience and
confidence in my ability to complete this degree. The root of my value for
education comes from my mother, who showed me that I could aspire to achieve
anything I desire. Most importantly, I am grateful to my family, who sacrificed
so much throughout the past three years. It was only through their patience,
support, and willingness to contribute to family that allowed me to stay
focused on achieving this concerning goal.
The
public suggestion is that the teacher should proceed with content knowledge and
skills to achieve the success in classrooms. All these demands are possible
when a teacher is highly trained by the senior teachers during his first year
of service in education department like school, college and university.
Studies
have shown that teachers who were mentored by senior teacher performed well and
gave an effective outcome in classrooms. Evidence is uniformly consistent that
effectively mentored teachers have more confidence in their abilities and stay focused
longer than those who do not receive mentoring support.
Pitton
(2006) describes the needs of pre-service
learner supervisors as similar to the needs of first year teachers. Student
achievement/performances a key event in the lives of future teachers and can
either make or break their success in their own classrooms (Glenn, 2006).
The student achievement/performance experience is a critical time period in the
development of pre-service teachers, where they apply what they have learned in
their preparation programs and learn from the opportunities to work collaboratively
with experienced teachers who are more knowledgeable. Darling-Hammond (2006)
refers to student achievement/performances a “culminating experience” during
which learner supervisors try new strategies and utilize the experienced
teachers’ support to make sense of their new experience.
Traditional
models of student achievement/performance employ a graduated level of
responsibility by the learner supervisors. The experienced teachers allow the
learner supervisors to first observe, then assist, and finally take over solo
planning and instruction (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Evans-Andris (2006) studied
the traditional student achievement/performance model and found that beginning
teachers reported a separation between their student achievement/performance
experience and their readiness for their own classrooms. Student
achievement/performance helped familiarize them with the occupation of
teaching, but left them with a contradiction between the expectations they had
of themselves and the reality of their new role. This incongruity created a
great need for emotional support, as well as technical assistance involving
their work.
Teaching
mentoring differs from traditional student achievement/performance and is a
more collaborative model of instruction. It consists of learner supervisors and
experienced teachers planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating results
of their instruction together (Chapman & Hart-Hyatt, 2009). Widely
used in schools between general and special educators, co-
Teaching
is increasingly being viewed as an effective method in which to include
pre-service educators, such as learner supervisors. Through dialogues between
learner supervisors and teaching mentoring mentors, reciprocal learning occurs
for both individuals.
Mentoring
is a method to assist learner supervisors as they are introduced into the
realities of the classroom. With highly effective and experienced teachers
serving as mentors during their student achievement/performance experience,
learner supervisors are more able to connect the theoretical learning from
their preparation programs to applications of teaching practices with their
students. Mentors supervise the learner supervisors while providing them
opportunities to make instructional decisions on their own. Mentors engage new
teachers in a process of reflecting on the evidence of their teaching, which
leads to positive effects on the learner supervisors’ practice and
self-confidence (Darling-Hammond, 2006).
Problem
Statement
Relatively
few mentoring models include focus on pre-service teachers who are still in
their teacher preparation program (Rick, 2006). Little empirical
research has been conducted about the effectiveness of mentoring from the
perspective of learner supervisors and a lack of documented literature exists
on how mentoring influences the outcome of student teaching. Evidence is needed
to determine the degree to which mentoring influences the learner supervisors’
experience and what, specifically, the learner supervisors perceive as having the
most impact on their practice.
Research
Purpose
This
mixed-methods study intended to examine the mentoring experience of pre-service
teachers that completed student achievement/performance in public school
classrooms. In this study, quantitative and qualitative data was collected
concurrently using a survey that measured the learner supervisors’
Understandings of the mentoring they received and the impact it had on their
success during student teaching. Convergence of the data was explored for detailed
aspects of the learner supervisors’ views of the mentoring experience in a
traditional model of student achievement/performance versus a teaching
mentoring student achievement/performance experience.
Research
Questions
1. What are learner supervisors’
Understandings of the mentoring factors that contributed to success in their
student achievement/performance experience?
2. What are the differences between the
Understandings of learner supervisors that are in a teaching mentoring
placement versus a non-teaching mentoring placement?
Significance
of the Research
A
study of mentoring experiences of learner supervisors is important for several reasons. First, just
as the needs of pre-service teachers are similar to the needs of beginning
teachers, so are the possibilities for their acquisition of effective teaching
skills through the support of highly qualified mentor teachers during student
teaching. Mentoring is a concerning practice that lends itself to more
accountability in preparing learner supervisors for the teaching profession (Darling-Hammond,
2006). The use of effective mentoring practices will help learner
supervisors learn new instructional strategies while acculturating them to a
new environment
And
socializing them to new concerning norms. This study will add confidence to
advocacy for the allocation of resources necessary for the provision of
mentoring experiences for all learner supervisors.
Second,
uncovering the specific aspects of mentoring practices within the student
achievement/performance setting will provide a greater depth of knowledge about
the value of the mentoring support on learner supervisors before they enter
their first year of teaching. Previous studies have measured the effect of
training on reducing the attrition rates of newly licensed teachers (Trubowitz,
2004), but less is known about the specific ways in which mentoring is used
productively to work with learner supervisors and what program structures
enable that work to result in the growth and progress of the supervisors’
capabilities. This study will lead to improved mentoring implementation.
Third,
according to Feiman-Nemser (2001), the vision of the mentoring program
depends on the school-university partnerships that support concerning
development for both the mentors and learner supervisors. Identifying what
mentors do to support the learner supervisors during student teaching and how
the learner supervisors perceive the effect of mentoring on their concerning
growth, will reinforce research-based approaches to mentoring and define
practices that lead to increased efficacy of the learner supervisors. This
study will add essential literature to the field of teacher preparation.
Summary
Understanding
the nature of student achievement/performance and the importance of having
quality mentors to support learner supervisors was outlined in the introduction
chapter of this proposal. In chapter 2, a review of pertinent literature will
describe how teacher preparation has changed over time and how contemporary
research has prompted renewed focus on the student achievement/performance
experience. Five essential factors of mentoring will be highlighted to probe
more deeply into how mentoring impacts the beginning
Review
of the Literature
It
is widely understood that the quality of the teacher is a key factor in the
success of children in K-12 classrooms. A Rand study in 2009 (Buddin &
Zamarro, 2009) showed that teacher quality has large effects on student
achievement. Students who have several effective teachers in a row make
dramatic academic achievement. Conversely, the impact of poor teaching on
students’ academic gains is alarming, even two years of ineffective teaching in
a row can cause students to lose significant ground in their achievement. It is
the Understanding of this lagging student accomplishment, especially for
at-risk minority students and students from disadvantaged families, that has
led to a pervasive concern from parents, educators, and policymakers to push
for improved teacher quality in all schools.
For
this study, a review of literature pertaining to the evolution of teacher
preparation practices will show how it has changed over time to include
extended and collaborative field-based experiences. The literature will provide
an understanding of why teacher attrition has become a problematic issue for new
teachers who are already teaching in PAKISTAN PUNJAB D.G KHAN IN ELEMENTARY LEVEL
classrooms, and how the development of mentoring programs for teachers has
positively addressed this dilemma. The transition from the traditional student
achievement/performance model to a more collaborative and reflective teacher
preparation experience will be discussed to connect the appropriateness of
mentoring practices for the learner supervisors whose needs are similar to
those of new teachers who are fleeing today’s classrooms at alarming rates.
Components of comprehensive mentoring programs and practices of mentor teachers
will be described and their impact on learner supervisors will be
Reviewed.
The chapter will conclude with a comparison of Pakistani literature according
to the five factors of mentoring that were developed by a District D.G KHAN
Punjab Pakistani researcher in learner supervisor development. The five factors
will be the source for the methodology discussed in chapter three.
Accountability
for Teacher Quality
Accentuated
focus on teacher quality is played out in high stakes testing and Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP) associated with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001
(Bertucci, 2009). The authors of NCLB acknowledged a cause-and-effect
relationship between teacher performance and student achievement when they
implemented rigorous school accountability measures with requirements that try
to ensure that all children are taught by "highly qualified" teachers
(Center for Best Practices, 2005). Every child deserves a high quality
education. To help students achieve at elementary levels and help schools meet
the AYP requirements, well-prepared and well-supported teachers are needed for
all children. Implied in high-quality performance of teachers over the course
of the students’ educational experience, is the schools’ ability to retain the
highest quality teachers throughout that time.
Why
Teachers Leave
Researchers
have, for a long time, attempted to identify why teachers leave the profession
early. Even in the late 1990’s, trends emerged from research and from
Testimonials
by new teachers themselves. First, the expectations and scope of the job
overwhelmed them. A gap emerged between their expectations of what teaching
would be like and the realities they found with the job. They experienced
disparity between their preparation for teaching and the real, day-to-day life
in the classroom. Lastly, the beginning teachers felt isolated and unsupported
in their classrooms (Bartell, 2005).
More
recently, Ingersoll and Kralik’s summary of the research (2004) listed
job dissatisfaction, salaries, lack of administrative support, lack of student
motivation, student discipline, and powerlessness with regard to decision
making, as reasons why new teachers leave. The most current literature notes
that teachers continue to struggle for survival in their early years in the
profession. While most teachers join the profession to “make a difference in
students’ lives” (Moir, 2009), beginning teachers’ frustration at being
unable to perform successfully often drives them away. The difficulties they
experience being on their own for the first time, cause them to feel isolated
and as though they are “alone on an island” (Danielson, 1996). These
feelings lead to despair and cause them to reconsider their choice of becoming
a teacher. Moore-Johnson (2004) confirms the new teachers’ lack of
belief in their capacity for success, “if teachers do not experience success
with their students in the classroom, they are unlikely to stay”
Promising
possibilities
Unfortunately,
America is losing many of its brightest new teachers before they have a chance
to reach an experienced level (Carroll, 2005). Believing there would be
enough teachers to fill even the hard-to-staff schools if many teachers were
not lost every year, Caroll (2005) identified a lack of beginning
teacher support as one of the main reasons, and one about which something can
be done. Strong (2005) agreed, stating that
Many
of the reasons why teachers leave, such as feelings of stress, lack of support,
and poor communication with colleagues, are “definite candidates for
reversibility by mentoring”.
Advocates
like Caroll (2005), Strong (2005), and others, call for a stronger start
for new teachers. Better working conditions, including effective leadership and
teacher involvement in decision making, and better preparation and support, are
efforts that can attract and retain a sufficient supply of qualified teachers.
A comprehensive and sustained mentoring program for new teachers is a primary
vehicle for effectively reversing these issues and can play a vital role in
keeping new teachers in the profession.
Mentoring
Mentoring
is a lively sort of the term mentor and was believed to originate from Homer’s
The Odyssey. Mentor was chosen by Odysseus to boost his son
Telemachus while he was away at war. Mentor served as a task model, guide,
facilitator, and supportive protector for Telemachus. within the education
context, the role of mentor has taken on the meaning of providing support for
teachers, serving the power to perform functions like teaching, sponsoring,
encouraging, counseling, and befriending (Bertucci, 2009; Bird, 1999).
Mentoring was first introduced to education within the 1980’s as a system of
support for brand spanking new teachers and, as of 2003 and , has increasingly
become implemented in some form by a minimum of 47 states (Marable &
Raimondi, 2007). Some states have moved toward mandates of latest teacher
mentoring, although policy of this type remains widely inconsistent In Pakistan
it had been started about in 2009 and in some districts the project was started
in 2010.
SECTION
1: Thank you for participating in this voluntary study on the support you have
received from your cooperating teacher (mentor) during your student teaching.
To preserve your anonymity, do not write your name or your cooperating
teacher’s name within this survey. Please circle the responses that apply to
you and/or indicate your answer on the blank.
a) What is your tech I.D. number?
(required) ____________________________
b)
What is your gender? Male Female
b)
What is your age?
_____________ Years old
c) How
many mentors (cooperating teachers) have been involved in your field
experiences during your preservice teaching preparation? (Include this one
during student teaching).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
or more mentors
d) How
many lessons did you plan for teaching during this student
achievement/performance experience (whole class and/or small groups)?
__________________ Lessons
e) Did
you feel comfortable in demonstrating lessons to your cooperating teacher
(mentor)?
Strongly Disagree Disagree Uncertain Agree Strongly
Agree
f) What
grade(s) did you teach during student teaching? (Circle all that apply.)
Pre-K K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
g) What is the name of
the school district you student taught in?
h) Which of the
following best describes your school’s location?
Rural Suburban Metropolitan Urban
Why do you want to become a teacher?
The following statements are
concerned with your learning experiences with your cooperating teacher (mentor)
During your final field experience
(student teaching). Please indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree
With each statement below by
circling only one response to the right of each statement.
Key: SD = Strongly Dis Agreed = Disagree U = Uncertain A = Agree SA =
Strongly Agree
During my final
field experience (student teaching) my cooperating teacher
(mentor):
1. was
supportive of me for teaching. ……………………………….….…… SD D U A SA
2. Used curriculum
language from the state standards………………………. SD D U A SA
3. Guided me with
lesson preparation. …………..………………………..…. SD D U A SA
4. Discussed with
me the school policies used for teaching. ……………..….. SD D U A SA
5. modeled
teaching. ……………………………………………………..…. SD D U A SA
6. Assisted me
with classroom management strategies for teaching. …….... SD D U A SA
7. Had a good
rapport with the students learning. …………………………... SD D U A SA
8. Assisted me
towards implementing teaching strategies. ……....……………. SD D U A SA
9. Displayed
enthusiasm when teaching. ………………………………..…..…
SD D U A SA
10. Assisted me
with timetabling (scheduling) my lessons. …….………….. SD D U A SA
11. Outlined
curriculum documents to me. ……………………………... SD D U A SA
12. Modeled
effective classroom management when teaching………….…. SD D U A SA
13. Discussed
evaluation of my teaching. ………………………..…………… SD D U A SA
14. Assisted me in
the development of my teaching strategies. …….……....... SD D U A SA
15. was effective
in teaching. ……………………………………………..… SD D U A SA
16. Provided oral
feedback on my teaching. …………………………………. SD D U A SA
17. seemed
comfortable in talking with me about teaching. …………………. SD D U A SA
18. Discussed with
me questioning skills for effective teaching. …………… SD D U A SA
19. Used hands-on
materials for teaching. …………………………………... SD D U A SA
20. Provided me
with written feedback on my teaching. ……...………….… SD D U A SA
21. Discussed with
me the content knowledge I needed for teaching.……..… SD D U A SA
22. Instilled
positive attitudes in me towards teaching. ……………………. SD D U A SA
23. Assisted me to
reflect on improving my teaching practices. …………….. SD D U A SA
24. Gave me clear
guidance for planning to teach. …………………………. SD D U A SA
25. discussed with
me the aims (goals) of teaching. ………………………..…. SD D U A SA
26. Made me feel
more confident as a teacher. ………………………..…….. SD D U A SA
27. Provided
strategies for me to solve my teaching problems. …………..… SD D U A SA
28. Reviewed my
lesson plans before teaching. …...………………………... SD D U A SA
29. Had
well-designed activities for the students. ……………………..…….. SD D U A SA
30. gave me new
viewpoints (perspectives) on teaching. ………..…………... SD D U A SA
31. Listened to me
attentively on teaching matters. ………………………… SD D U A SA
32. Showed me how
to assess students’ learning. ………………………….. SD D U A SA
33 clearly articulated what I needed to do to improve my teaching.
……….. SD D U A SA
34. Observed me teach before providing feedback. ………………………... SD D U A SA
This final section also focuses on your mentoring experience during
student teaching.
1. How many times did
you talk with your mentor (cooperating teacher) about teaching during
student
teaching?
____________ Times
2. Did you feel you
had a good rapport with your mentor (cooperating teacher) during your student
teaching? (circle)
Yes No briefly explain your response:
3. What support
strategies did your mentor (cooperating teacher) use to help you to feel
successful with teaching?
4. Were there any
aspects you think made you feel unsuccessful with teaching?
Yes No briefly explain your response:
5. What could your
mentor (cooperating teacher) have done to further support your development as a
teacher?
6. What do you think
you could do (as a learner supervisor) to help a mentor (cooperating teacher)
to support your
Learning about teaching?
__________________________________________________________________
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