Mentoring Practices of Cooperating Teachers of English in Selected Secondary Schools

Abstract

 In the conduct of practice teaching in the Philippines, mentoring refers to a nurturing process in which a highly skilled or experienced teacher provides support and encouragement to a young Pre-Service teacher. A mentor or cooperating teacher refers to a teacher who is assigned to guide the student teacher in the development of professional competencies, attitudes, and behaviors. Mentoring plays a very significant role in the Pre-Service teachers’ practicum journey as it enables them to be under the supervision of an experienced teacher in terms of classroom management, lesson planning, use of varied teaching strategies, and assessment. Traditional evaluation procedures usually entail downward movement which is the evaluation of cooperating teachers or mentors on the overall performance of the teacher trainees in the teaching-learning process during practicum. Pre-Service teachers are not often given the voice to assess the mentoring practices of cooperating teachers, rendering the student teachers silent in the process of assessment. This study aimed to challenge the tradition by allowing Pre-Service teachers to assess the mentoring practices of cooperating teachers through survey and focus group discussion. The study revealed that Pre-Service teachers of English find the mentoring practices of cooperating teachers to be very satisfactory. This research ends with recommendations for improvement of cooperating teachers in mentoring the 21st century Pre-Service teachers.