With almost half of all new teachers leaving the profession in the first few years, it is imperative that school systems find ways to support and retain these new teachers. Formal mentoring is a growing necessity. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the effectiveness of one school system's mentoring program.
This study included 4 sets of mentor and mentee teachers. Each set consisted of a beginning teacher in her 1st year of teaching and an experienced teacher trained by the school system to serve as a mentor. This study was conducted in a rural East Tennessee School System.
The qualitative interviews were conducted by meeting with the 8 participants. A list of possible participants was obtained from the central office (see Appendix A). An email was sent to each possible participant explaining the nature of the study (see Appendix B). An interview guide was used and participants signed the Informed Consent Form (see Appendix C).
During the interview process, 3 commonalities were found among the 4 sets of teachers. These were the need for better training, common grade level assignments, and the overall positive experience of mentoring.
All of the teachers interviewed indicated that mentoring was a positive experience. Allowing veteran teachers to reflect on and enhance their own teaching while guiding new teachers through procedures and routines is a win-win situation for all involved. This study found congruence with the review of literature. The study indicates that the mentoring program in this rural East Tennessee county to be a positive and beneficial endeavor. Recommendations for the program include extending the time for mentoring past the 1st year and striving to assign mentors to mentees within similar teaching assignments.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-2574 |
| Date | 17 December 2011 |
| Creators | Manning, Nikki Lynn |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright by the authors. |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds