The mentoring needs of final year student teachers during their first teaching practicum

Abstract

Student-teachers at the University of Pretoria are in desperate need of mentoring during their teaching practicum period. This is an essential need as they only get the opportunity to start their teaching practicum when they are in their final year of study. This study forms a part of a larger study that comes from a research project called the Peer Enhanced Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL). The aim of this project is to develop a mentoring intervention programme which will be used to develop student teachers into teachers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify, explore and understand what the mentoring needs of final year student-teachers in the year 2016 and 2017 at the University of Pretoria were during their first teaching practicum. This study aims to do such, because the participants of this study had a late exposure to teaching practice, and as such when they started their teaching practicum, they experienced feelings of being uncertain, scared, and anxious. The research methodology that this study will utilize is the qualitative research approach using single case study design. Inductive thematic analysis will then be used to analyse the data gathered for this study. The student-teachers in this study were 2016 and 2017 fourth year B. Ed students (n=433) that were studying at the University of Pretoria (Groenkloof campus), in the year 2016 (170), and 2017 (263). The theoretical framework that guided this study is Hudson’s five-factor model of mentoring. The findings of the study revealed that student-teachers at the University of Pretoria need to be mentored, specifically by their mentor lecturers as they embark on their teaching practicum.