ABSTRACT

This study was undertaken to determine extent to which beginning teachers are supported by more experienced colleagues to develop professionally. Collaborative mentoring is a situation where more experienced masters ofthe art (veteran teachers) in a given school jointly work together to provide supports or scaffold to beginning or novice teachers for the development of their pedagogical practices. The absence of formal and organized collaborative teacher mentoring programmes in the secondary school system necessitated the researcher’s intent to purposefully investigate the extent ofprovision of collaborative teacher mentoring support at informal or unorganized level as a way of assisting beginning teachers in developing pedagogical skills and practices. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Twelve research questions and twelve hypotheses tested at 0.05 level ofsignificance guided the study. A sample of400 secondary school teachers made up of 125 males and 275 females as well as 226 mentors and 174 mentees drawn from a population of 47,396 teachers in the Southeast Nigeria was used for the study. The sample size was determined using Taro Yamane Formula and drawn using multi-staged sampling procedure. Two sets of questionnaires developed by the researcher and titled: Mentor Teacher Mentoring Support Survey Questionnaire (TMSSQ1) and Beginning Teacher Mentoring Support Survey Questionnaire (TMSSQ2) were used for data collection. The instruments were validated by five experts; one from Educational Measurement and Evaluation, two from Curriculum and Instruction and two from Educational Management all from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. The reliability ofthe two instruments were established using Pearson Product Moment Correlation formula which yielded indices of 0.79 and 0.80 for TMSSQ1 and (TMSSQ2) respectively. Data were collected by the researcher with the help offive wellbriefed research assistants. Out of the 400 copies of the questionnaires administered, 388 representing 97% ofthe entire instrument distributed were returned and used for data analysis. Data collected were analyzed with mean and standard deviations to answer the 12 research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the 12 hypotheses at 0.05 level ofsignificance. Real limit of numbers was employed in decision making on the research questions that addressed “extent” while 2.50 was used as the bench mark mean for those ones that addressed agree and disagree responses. Findings of the study include: that collaborative mentoring supports are provided to the teachers to a low extent and in not a well-organized and formalized manner, and this has influenced the development of their pedagogical practices marginally. Strategies for promoting collaborative mentoring supports for the development of pedagogical practices include: formal recognition of collaborative mentoring support initiatives as an integral component of induction programme of beginning teachers, proper planning and scheduling of mentoring time, selection of mentors on the basis of quality attributes such as humility, resourcefulness, humaneness among others. Poor infrastructure and poor orientation/induction of novice teachers among others, were identified as militating factors to effective collaborative mentoring of beginning teachers. The following recommendations among others were made: government should provide allowances in the form ofmotivations to the mentors to enable them increase the extent they provide mentoring supports to the beginning teachers in their respective schools. The following recommendations among others were made; teacher training institutions should include collaborative mentoring in their respective school curriculum to help sustain the mentoring supports and services rendered to beginning teachers. There should be effective supervision ofmentoring support programmes in schools. Stakeholders including the government, school administrators, mentors and mentees should rise to address the challenges that are encountered in providing collaborative mentoring supports to beginning teachers in schools. Key words: mentoring, mentoring support, informal mentoring support, mentor-teacher, mentee-teacher, pedagogical practices.