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System requirements
Items displayed under the system requirements factor had little variance, but remained some of
the lower scores received in the study. Student teachers indicated 85% of the mentors discussed school
policies and the goals for teaching, while 82% of the mentees reported their mentors outlined the
curriculum (mean item score range: 4.10 to 4.25;
SD
range: 0.89 to 0.93, see Table 3).
Table 3
System Requirements
Mentoring practice
%
Mean
SD
Discussed aims
85.5
4.25
0.93
Discussed policies
85.0 4.23
0.90
Outlined curriculum
82.2
4.10
0.89
Note.
%*, Percentage of mentees who either
agreed
or
strongly agreed
their mentor provided
that specific mentoring practice.
Pedagogical knowledge
In this study, 94% of the student teachers claimed their mentors assisted with classroom
management. Almost as frequently, 92% of the mentor teachers provided their perspectives about
pedagogical knowledge to the student teachers. Mentors’ assistance with planning (91%), and assistance
with teaching strategies (90%), were the remaining items reported over 90% of the time. Four additional
items pertaining to pedagogical knowledge resulted in data ranging from 87.2 % to 89.5% (mean item
score range: 4.31 to 4.36; SD range: 0.86 to 2.81, see Table 4). The four items were as follows: discussion
about assessment and implementation, guided lesson preparation, discussions about problem solving, and
discussions about content knowledge. The two lowest perceived pedagogical knowledge items, both
finding 86.8% of the student teachers either agreeing or strongly agreeing that this practice was
implemented, pertained to the mentors’ discussions of questioning techniques with the student teacher
(mean score=4.29;
SD
=0.89) and assisting student teachers with scheduling (mean score=4.27;
SD
=0.89).
Table 4
Pedagogical Knowledge
Mentoring practice
%*
Mean
SD
Assisted with classroom management
94.1
4.55
0.77
Provided viewpoints (perspectives)
92.2
4.48
0.80
Assisted in planning
91.8
4.46
0.77
Assisted with teaching strategies
90.0
4.46
0.81
Discussed implementation
89.5
4.39
0.82
Discussed assessment
89.5 4.36
0.87
Guided preparation
88.6
4.31
0.85
Discussed problem solving
87.7
4.39
0.88
Discussed content knowledge
87.2
4.31
0.86
Assisted with timetabling
86.8
4.27
0.89
Discussed questioning techniques
86.8
4.29
0.89
Note.
%*, Percentage of mentees who either
agreed
or
strongly agreed
their mentor
provided that specific mentoring practice.