The present thesis is an investigation into the impact and role of formal peer mentoring programmes as retention and enrichment strategies within UK Higher Education. Reviews of the literature highlighted several limitations within the empirical evidence for benefits of mentoring schemes. This thesis systematically evaluated the availability and impact of peer mentoring schemes within UK Higher Education. Firstly, a new measure of wellbeing was constructed and validated in student samples. A UK wide survey of 94 Universities supported the notion of increasing popularity of formal peer mentoring schemes and demonstrated the perceived benefits of peer mentoring as a retention strategy. Employing a theoretically driven longitudinal methodology a controlled comparison between first year students’ attending a UK university with a peer mentoring scheme versus a university without a peer mentoring scheme further substantiated the benefits of peer mentoring. Those within the peer mentoring university were three times less likely to think of dropping out of university, were coping better with the transition to university and were better adapted to university life: an important predictor in intention to leave. The relationship between peer mentoring and intention to leave was mediated by integration in university as proposed by Jacobi (1991). In support of the ‘buffering’ hypothesis existence of peer mentors moderated the relationship between predicted changes in social support, affect and self esteem during the transition to university. Within the fourth research study of first year students at a Scottish university; attitudes towards the introduction of a peer mentoring scheme within a university without such a scheme was investigated. Results indicated a positive perception of mentoring, with no student stating that they would not seek advice from a peer mentor if one was available. Although individuals who were experiencing greater levels of stress and homesickness were more likely to indicate they would use a peer mentor demographic variables did not differentiate between individuals who wanted peer mentors and those who felt less need. The most important attributes of a peer mentor for this sample of 158 first year students were commitment to the scheme and listening skills. Finally the impact of formal peer mentoring schemes within Higher Education was assessed from the perspective of the mentor, employing a qualitative (focus group) methodology at a university with an established peer mentoring scheme. Multiple benefits were indicated including personal, emotional, and academic advantages of becoming a mentor. All of the mentors within this study highlighted numerous motives for becoming a mentor although most important was their own previous experience (negative and positive) of the peer mentoring scheme. The results of each study are discussed in line with previous literature, limitations of the research and suggestions for future research. This thesis concludes that formal peer mentoring schemes can have a positive impact on the mentees, mentors and institutions involved and specifies nine recommendations for policy and practice.

The main purpose of the study was to explore the relationships between self concepts of beginning teachers as measured before and after an internship year. The second purpose of the study was to examine whether there were significant differences between beginning elementary teachers' expectations/experiences, attitudes and views before and after a year of participation in the Beginning Teacher Internship Program. A comparison of differences in perceptions between the findings obtained from the beginning elementary teachers and their cooperating principals was also conducted.The populations for the study included 138 beginning elementary teachers and 120 cooperating principals.Nine research questions were developed and tested using the data from participants who responded to this research. The t test at the .05 level of significant difference was administered in this study.The following results were obtained:1. There were no significant differences in the self concepts of beginning teachers from before participation in comparison to those self concepts held after a year's participation in the Beginning Teacher Internship Program as measured by the Self-perception Inventory. Within the instrument, three items of 36 yielded significant differences.2. There were significant differences before the start of the internship year between the expectations (7 of 12 items), attitudes (6 of 10 items), and views (3 of 3 items) held by beginning teachers and those held by their cooperating principals. Beginning teachers held more positive expectations, attitudes and views than did their cooperating principals.3. There were significant differences in 11 of 12 items after a year's experience with BTIP between the reported experiences of beginning teachers and the observed experiences of beginning teachers as reported by their principals. Beginning teachers reported more positive experiences than their principals.4. There were significant differences between the expectations/experiences (11 of 13 items), and attitudes (6 of 10 items) held by beginning teachers before and after participation in the BTIP.The educational implications of these findings were presented. Recommendations for further research and replication were also presented. / Department of Educational Leadership

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Leadership and Foundations. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Text in Afrikaans / Educational Studies / M.Ed.

The author presents original research findings on the subject of the impact of a youth mentoring program, Fresh Start, on a group of at-risk adolescents in the United States. The article opens with an introduction and overview of the subject of youth mentoring, and proceeds to a review of the literature that describes types of mentoring and the varied outcomes mentoring programs have been documented to have on target populations. The literature also explains the concept of at-risk adolescents, and explains how and why mentoring programs are believed to be effective interventions for working with this population. The author then presents the methodology, research design, and procedures that were used for the study, and identifies the organization that served as the subject of the study. The researcher explained that data were collected from three distinct participant groups: students, teachers, and parents. The researcher documents the data collection and analysis techniques, and reports the results. Based on the study conducted, the researcher concluded that the Fresh Start mentoring intervention influenced statistically significant positive outcomes for participants with respect to the at-risk students’ behaviour and academic performance. Taking this conclusion into consideration, the researcher reflected upon the components of a mentoring program that are most likely to predict academic and social success for students who have been deemed at-risk, and offered recommendations for future research and program development. / Sociology / D. Phil.(Sociology )

Effective mentoring is essential for the development of student-teachers. A sequential explanatory mixed method study was conducted in order to analyse the perspectives of Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) students on the effectiveness of school based mentoring. Thirty-six (36) PGCE students from a higher education institution in the Eastern Cape participated in this study. Firstly, quantitative questionnaires were used to gather data from all the participants followed by qualitative semi–structured interviews from a purposive sample of five (5) participants in order to enrich the study. This study analysed PGCE students’ perspectives of mentor teacher practices. In doing so the study evoked Hudson and Peards’ Five Factor Mentoring Model. This model includes Personal Attributes, Systems Requirements, Pedagogical Knowledge, Modelling and Feedback. From the findings, PGCE students reported that Teaching Practice (TP) is a stressful period full of anxieties, excitement and fears, hence they need to be guided and supported by knowledgeable and specialist teachers (mentors). Mentors play a significant role in supporting and guiding student-teachers during TP. From the analysis of PGCE students’ perspectives, the research suggested that those who were supported and guided by their mentors experienced positive mentoring during TP. Those who experienced negative mentoring reported limited time for mentoring and unavailability of the mentors as the causes. They further expressed that they wished mentors were understanding, good models who treated them as teacher candidates not as students and gave them constructive feedback. Finally, they indicated that the partnership between host schools and the university needs to be improved.

As part of a drive to improve the quality of teachers, Zimbabwe introduced a school-based mentoring model in 1995, a move which regrettably seems not have borne fruit. Therefore, this study sought to propose an improved mentoring model for initial teacher training for primary school teachers. Efforts to improve the current mentoring could, however, be facilitated if they were informed by an empirically-based understanding of the shortcomings of the existing mentoring system for student teachers and teachers. In order to attain the above objective, this study adopted a multisite case study design, guided by the interpretive paradigm. A core of nine primary schools, drawn from the rural, urban and peri-urban areas of the Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe, was purposively selected to participate in the study. In the participating schools, key participants were student teachers and mentors, while school principals participated when they had time. A secondary group of primary schools were also identified to be used as validation of findings in a wider setting. An in-depth literature study on teacher education and mentoring was also carried out and this, combined with empirical data, illuminated the issues being investigated. The empirical data were primarily gathered through focus group and face-to-face individual semi-structured interviews, while participant observation (used in conjunction with informal unstructured interviews) and questionnaires were used to verify and triangulate data collected through the interviews. To safeguard the ethical integrity of the study, ethical approval from the relevant university committee, as well as the official consent of educational authorities, was obtained beforehand, as was the informed consent of individual participants. The research established that the support rendered to student teachers in the participating primary schools was largely inadequate and of a shallow mode, focusing primarily on facilitating the mastery of technical skills and the provision of psycho-social support, while being sorely deficient in empowering the student teachers with the skills and attitudes to reflectively and critically engage with their own and others‟ teaching practices. The mentoring was taking place in the context of field experience, organised along the apprenticeship model, hence located in an outmoded traditional paradigm of field experience, something which is regrettable at a time when international best practices seek to move towards a reflective-inquiry-oriented paradigm. Secondly, the research found that the participating schools were not structurally or culturally ready to take significant teacher training responsibility; hence the schools, in their present state, could be seen as constraining the smooth functioning of the mentoring model. Thirdly, some mentor-based factors also seemed to inhibit the functioning of the mentoring model. These included teachers who were attitudinally indisposed to accept student teachers as their professional colleagues, preferring to relate to them hierarchically and vertically, thereby limiting the emergence of a culture of professional collaboration and reciprocal learning relationships. In similar vein, the mentors‟ lack of training limited their capacity of mentors to perform the extended range of mentoring functions necessary for supporting student teachers trained in 21st century schools. The above conclusions and implications point towards the following recommendations: Mentor support for student teachers should be extended from the present superficial level to include functions that are oriented towards reflective practice. However, for this to happen, some adjustments will need to be made in the schools. These include, most importantly, making time available for mentoring activities. In order for the mentors to be able to perform their mentoring functions knowledgeably, they must be made fully aware of what they are supposed to do by providing them with the official documents spelling out mentoring expectations in schools. Additionally, the commitment of mentors to their duties could be made more sustainable by putting in place a clearly defined reward structure that is fully recognized officially and integrated into the employee grading system. To make school environments more propitious towards mentoring, schools must be structurally modified and re-cultured to create slots for mentoring activities, provide opportunities for informal professional interaction among teachers, as well as establish professional engagement forums, such as school-based learning circles. The research also suggests that student teachers should be allowed to choose their mentors through providing them with opportunities for early contact with their prospective mentoring partners. In an attempt to close the gap between college-based modules and field-based school experiences, the research further recommends that college-based modules be delivered in a way that ensures that they are fully integrated with student teachers‟ field experiences. Finally, mentoring could be better facilitated if schools and colleges adopted a partnership arrangement that is more aligned to mentoring. This implies provisionally shifting from the present separatist to the HEI-led partnership model, while preparing for the adoption of a fully-fledged collaborative partnership in the long term. The research was, however, by no means carried out perfectly. It was somewhat limited by its failure to take into account the view of officials from the Department of Education, as well as the input of colleagues in teacher education. In similar vein, the researcher felt that a more nuanced and fine-grained picture of the participants‟ mentoring experiences could have emerged if he had spent more time in the field, something which limited resources and work commitments did not allow him to do. Some significant issues arose from this study, but which it could not pursue. These include exploring the possibility of coming up with a model of teacher education that integrates ITE and CTPD in the context of mentoring, as well as conducting a similarly designed research into the mentoring that is taking place in secondary schools.

M. A. / The inequalities regarding opportunities for the various cultural groups in South Africa to obtain access to tertiary education, could largely be attributed to the insufficient schooling that was available to black scholars until now. A new political dispensation and the coupled drastic changes to the educational system, including tertiary institutions, demands that the admission policies regulating the access tot tertiary education be reviewed and changed to provide for the educationally disadvantaged student. The Rand Afrikaans University created an alternative admission policy to accommodate educationally disadvantaged students and or students who do not qualify in terms of the usual admission criteria. Apart from certain minimum requirements, the policy requires that the learning and developmental potential of the prospective students be established. Language proficiency, intelligence, learning potential and other non-cognitive components are elements of the alternative evaluation. RAU found that the admission policy creates the necessity to research the predictive validity of the cognitive part of the test battery, with regard to the criterium academic performance. This research project attempted to assess whether the psychometric test battery which the University uses, within the framework of an academic support programme called Project 100, can be viewed as valid in predicting future academic performance of these students. The battery includes the measurement of intelligence by means of the LSAT; learning potential as assessed by the APIL; as well as language proficiency that is measured by using the Leesbegripstoets and the Reading Comprehension Test. M-score was also included into the statistical procedures, as to see whether the predictive validity of this factor is really as low as it is generally assumed. The statistical procedures that were employed to establish the predictive validity, included correlation coefficients for determining the validity of the individual components. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to determine the predictive validity of the components of the battery in conjunction with each other. Using the technique of discriminant analysis, the success of grouping through the test battery was assessed - looking at the proportion of the cases correctly classified into the categories pass, fail, and no admission to exam; and the categories successful and unsuccessful. The individual correlation coefficients revealed that each component correlated significantly with academic performance. M-score also correlated with academic performance, but this coefficient was the lowest of all the factors. The component which correlated highest with academic performance, was language proficiency. The GSAT and the APIL correlated to the same extent with performance, and the relationship between the two instruments was also relatively high. This implies that these two instruments probably measures the same construct. The results from the regression analysis proved M-score, APIL and the GSAT in combination to explain more of the variance in academic performance than any of these factors individually. M-score seems to explain other aspects of performance than intelligence and learning potential, and should for this reason be reckoned with when assessing a prospective student's potential success. The discriminant analysis showed that the tests successfully distinguish between the categories successful and unsuccessful, but not between the three categories pass, fail and no admission to exam. The factors should however never be seen in isolation. No single factor can predict academic performance to the full. The person should be seen as a whole, and the influence of non-cognitive factors should always be kept in mind.

The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between scores of the new teachers' classroom effectiveness with numerical indexes of mentor support, mentor infrastructure, and workplace ecology. In addition, this study sought to determine the effect of various demographics (i.e., gender, age, race, degree, teaching level, and certification route) on the Classroom Effectiveness Index (CEI) scores of first-year teachers, and to determine the differences, if any, between the Classroom Effectiveness Index scores of first-year teachers who remained on campus, switched campuses, or left the district. This study is primarily correlational in nature - looking for relationships between quantifiable variables. The subjects are 68 first-year teachers. The mandatory mentoring program the subjects were involved in consisted of a paid, veteran teacher who worked on the same campus as the first-year teacher and assisted in instructional or behavioral needs. This study measured the impact of the first-year teachers' mentoring experiences to the Classroom Effectiveness Index scores and teacher retention. The findings suggest that the Classroom Effectiveness Index scores might not be an appropriate tool for uncovering which aspects of mentoring contribute to student achievement and retention. Adding the value-added measurement tool to the categories of mentor support (MS), mentor infrastructure (MI), and workplace ecology (WE), rendered no statistically significant results. Therefore, further research is necessary to continue to define the effective characteristics of mentoring and its impact on classroom effectiveness and retention.