Author : Roberta E. Faust
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Mentoring in education
ISBN : OCLC:57357687
Perceived Usefulness of Three Mentoring Strategies for Beginning Physical Education Teachers by Roberta E. Faust Pdf
Abstract: Research supports the use of mentoring programs and induction assistance for retaining quality teachers and easing beginning teachers' transition into their professional roles. Observation has been documented in the research literature as a strategy for mentoring yet there are few physical education studies that have use other mentoring strategies for assisting beginning physical educators during their induction years. This qualitative study explored the perceptions of four beginning physical educators regarding the usefulness of three mentoring strategies (observation, telephone mentoring and telementoring). Other supporting research questions related to the teachers' concerns and resources utilized. Participants taught in a high school and middle schools located in urban, suburban and rural areas of the Midwest. Data were collected over six weeks during spring 2000 through formal and informal interviews, observations with field notes, audiotaped telephone mentoring sessions, telementoring emails saved to discs, and documents such as lesson plans and handouts and teaching artifacts. Collected data from the case studies were analyzed using constant comparison among the various data sources. A cross case/site analysis was conducted to explore emerging themes as well as similarities and differences across the cases. One of the key findings was that concerns of these participants were similar to other beginning teachers. Secondly, adequate resources were available to support and assist the participants in addressing their concerns. Third, although a wealth of resources was provided by the researcher few were utilized. Finally, each of the three mentoring strategies was useful to the beginning physical education teachers in this study and they found the combination of the three mentoring strategies to be the most useful.