Tips on the Successful Implementation of Mentoring

Mentoring, training, and coaching programmes for new teachers are effective strategies to improve the quality of a new teacher’s abilities and knowledge, as well as his job happiness and professional competence. These programmes for new teachers are also great ways to improve the student’s talents as well as the mentor’s abilities. These mentoring programmes are required in many US schools to ensure that the new teacher is fully competent of handling the classroom.

Mentoring programmes are being used in some schools not only to train incoming teachers for their jobs, but also to solve the problem of teacher shortages. According to a recent article in the Contra Costa Times, nearly 25% of new teachers in California leave their jobs within their first four years due to a lack of support from the administration and fellow instructors. In addition, the mentoring programme adds to the administrative burden for both inexperienced teachers and mentors. Aside from the increased obligations assigned to instructors, there is a significant amount of documentation to be completed. Preparing lesson plans, evaluations, and progress and success reports are all part of this.

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind in order to guarantee that mentorship programmes are conducted successfully:

• Remove needless paperwork and regulations – UC Riverside researchers recommended this after learning that many mentors and new teachers in the programme are grumbling about the repetitious chores and excessive paperwork they must complete. Aside from being overwhelmed by their new responsibilities, rookie instructors are still saddled with a mountain of paperwork, including lesson planning, which takes up a significant portion of their time. It is suggested that programmes place a strong emphasis on mentorship. New and experienced instructors can participate in less stressful activities that allow them to freely connect and share their knowledge, skills, and experiences.

• New teachers must be paired with the appropriate mentors – It is critical for the new teacher and mentor to connect freely. To accomplish this, administrators must make every effort to pair new teachers with mentors who share their skills and interests. This would allow the new instructor to freely ask questions of the mentor and receive recommendations and assistance.

• Have separate evaluators – In order for the mentor and the new teacher to focus on their major responsibilities, they must be relieved of extra responsibilities such as programme evaluation. A separate evaluator may be designated to visit with both seasoned and novice instructors to discuss the mentoring program’s progress.

• Evaluate the entire mentoring programme on a regular basis – Campus-level administrators should evaluate not only the progress of newly hired teachers, but also the school’s entire mentoring, training, and coaching programme, which includes the mentors’ ability to coach neophyte teachers, the mentoring process, the students’ progress relative to the new teachers’ progress during the programme, and other forms of support and assistance given to the new teacher.

It’s also crucial to find out what other teachers think about the programme and how it affects their decision to stay or quit the school or the teaching profession. These factors are critical to the development and improvement of not only the school’s mentoring programme, but also other mentoring programmes.