Enhancing the quality of pre-service teachers learning through the conceptualizing of mentoring strategies during the practicum

Professional experience has been described as a cornerstone of teacher preparation that has a "profound impact on student teachers" (Hammerness, Darling-Hammond, & Shulman, 2002, p. 409). There is a wide variation of teacher education programs across the world however, in most countries teacher preparation programs consists of initial university-based course work followed by school-based student teaching practice. Clearly, this program structure has implications for the role of professional experience in creating genuine opportunities for pre-service teachers to develop teaching practice and knowledge about the profession. During the professional experience, mentoring pre-service teachers has been considered critical in ensuring a quality learning (Hascher , Cocard, & Moser, 2004). A number of researchers(Hascher , et al., 2004; Maynard, 2000; Putnam & Borko, 2000) believe that the quality of pre-service teachers learning largely depends on how effective mentors are in creating a positive learning environment. This establishes the need for greater clarity around effective mentoring strategies and a clearer understanding of how best to mentor pre-service teachers. This study contributes to addressing this gap by developing a model of mentoring strategies based on Kram's (1983) mentoring theory, through interviews and focus group discussions. The data was used to develop a tool to guide mentoring. This paper analyses this tool based on Kram's (1983) mentoring theory and makes a contribution to enhancing the quality of mentoring.