Identifying Mentor Teachers Roles and Perceptions in Pre-Service Teachers Teaching Practicum: The Use of a Mentoring Model

Abstract

Mentor teachers need to play and perform their roles constantly when mentoring pre-service teachers in teaching practicum. Despite the plentiful literature on teaching practicum in the Malaysian context, research on mentor teachers’ roles played is still sparse. This research thus sets to investigate the roles played by the mentor teachers and explore their perceptions of the roles played. To investigate the roles played and explore the perceptions of roles by the mentor teachers, a sequential explanatory mixed-method design was used. A Five Factor Mentoring Model was employed and we recruited 124 mentor teachers using snowballing technique to fill in a questionnaire with seven mentor teachers to partake an interview. Findings show that the mentor teachers perceive themselves as playing their roles to a great extent and believe they have contributed greatly when mentoring pre-service teachers. While results are positive, further research is required to compare the responses between pre-service teachers and mentor teachers to determine the extent of truth on the roles played.