Mentorship applications in professional development of prospective classroom teachers: A case study

In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the prospective teacher training process of the Ministry of National Education in terms of mentoring practices. In this context, it was tried to determine the level of mentoring roles of experienced teachers for new teachers in the context of the prospective teacher training process. The holistic multi-case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The participant group of the study consists of eight candidate classroom teachers working in public primary schools affiliated to Kahramanmaraş Provincial Directorate of National Education and seven counsellor teachers who are the advisors of these teachers. During the data collection process, individual face-to-face interviews were conducted. A semi-structured interview form consisting of nine open-ended questions was used in individual face-to-face interviews. The questions in the interview forms were arranged as separate forms for prospective classroom teachers and advisors, including the same topics. Descriptive analysis and inductive content analysis were used to analyze the data. Based on the responses received from the participants, prospective teachers expressed the concept of mentorship as providing orientation opportunities, guidance and assistance when needed by their advisors. However, there are also prospective teachers who have misinformation about the concept of mentoring or have no idea about the concept of mentoring. On the other hand, counsellor teachers expressed mentorship as guiding, helping and guiding prospective teachers in the process of training prospective teachers. According to the findings of the research, the mentoring service that prospective teachers receive in solving their professional and social problems can help newly appointed teachers to spend this process in a healthier way. The personal qualities that should be in the counsellor are expressed as being well-intentioned, being polite, smiling, understanding, empathy, while professional characteristics are expressed as being open to innovations, being senior, being pedagogically knowledgeable. According to the findings of the study, most of the participants think that the applications carried out in the prospective teaching process are beneficial, and they want this process to continue with some corrections. When the opinions of the participants on what should be done to make the prospective teacher process healthier are examined, it is primarily necessary to reduce the forms in the process, to have closer communication between the advisor teachers and the prospective teachers, the candidate and the advisor teacher to work in the same school and the same branch, and the training given to the prospective teachers. it is required to be practical. It was noted that the teachers who had to fill in too many forms and documents during this process were not satisfied with this situation. In conclusion, it can be said that the prospective teacher training process of the Ministry of National Education has prepared a suitable and convenient environment for mentoring practices in terms of systemic setup. However, based on the opinions of the participants, it is seen that this systemic setup is mostly on paper, and that mentoring practices are not effectively included in the process of raising prospective teachers.