The effects of a mentoring program on the socialization process of first-year teachers in a public school district
Abstract
This study investigated the mentor/teacher interactions which comprised the components of the mentoring program in a large, urban school district. By focusing on these social interactions, this study (1) examined the interactions between two groups of first-year teachers: those with formally assigned mentors and those without formally assigned mentors; (2) examined the difference in attitude between the two groups of teacher's to determine if the activities and experiences as documented in the mentoring questionnaire improved the first-year teacher's attitude toward his/her socialization; (3) examined the change in the attitude to see if the change was manifested by the social interactions between mentor and first-year teacher, (4) examined the perceived effectiveness of the social interactions between the mentors and first-year teachers; and (5) examined the first-year teachers' perceptions of the assistance provided by the district. Two instruments were used to collect data for this study. The researcher-designed questionnaire, Analyzing Activities Between Mentor and First-Year Teachers , gathered information pertaining to the interactions between mentor and protégé and the perceived value of the interactions. The second instrument, Beginning Teacher Attitude Survey , measured socialization attitudes of first-year teachers. The study involved two random samples from a volunteer population of first-year teachers. No random placement by group was possible since the school district selected those first-year teachers receiving mentors from the district mentoring program. Due to the non-significant difference between groups for the mentoring interactions and the non-significant difference between pretest and posttest attitude scores, the researcher concluded that the district's mentoring program did not assist its first-year teachers in becoming more socialized into the norms, values, and skills of the teaching profession. The negative correlation for Group 1 provided the data to reject Null III for Group 1, showing that as more time was spent on mentoring interactions, the difference between pre- and posttest scores decreased (decreasing scores showed improvement). Because there was a significant correlation between mentoring interactions and evaluation scores of those activities and the positive comments made in the narrative questions, the researcher concluded that the time spent on mentoring activities were viewed as helpful by the first-year teachers.
Recommended Citation
Wilk, Susan Elizabeth, "The effects of a mentoring program on the socialization process of first-year teachers in a public school district" (1999). Dissertations (1962 - 2010) Access via Proquest Digital Dissertations. AAI9929172.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations/AAI9929172