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Mentor Wasn’t Always Available: Challenges of Pre-Service Teachers on Supported Teaching in Schools

Received: 11 January 2023    Accepted: 2 February 2023    Published: 16 February 2023
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Abstract

The goal of the study was to identify the difficulties that pre-service teachers encountered while participating in supported teaching in schools. Using a phenomenology design, the study utilized a qualitative approach. Convenience sampling technique was used to sample twenty (20) level 100 pre-service teachers (12 males and 8 females) who were enrolled in a bachelor of education program. Data was gathered through extensive, semi-structured interviews. The majority of the challenges encountered by student-teachers were related to the attitude of the mentors such as mentor absenteeism, mentor lateness, mentor inability to provide student-teachers with necessary information they needed, mentor inability to assist student-teachers, and mentor’s lack of devotion for student-teachers. The partner school related challenges identified were: lack of mentors, inadequate curricular materials, inadequate teaching and learning materials, inadequate textbooks, and inadequate furniture in some schools. It was found that majority of mentors in the partner schools had little knowledge of what supported teaching in schools entailed. Thus the mentors found it challenging to give student-teachers the support and direction they needed. In many instances, mentors were unfamiliar with the new Bachelor of Education Curriculum, which made it challenging for them to offer effective and knowledgeable mentorship. Some college tutors did not provide student-teachers with enough assistance through reflection.

Published in American Journal of Education and Information Technology (Volume 7, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajeit.20230701.11
Page(s) 1-7
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Teacher Education, Teaching Practice, Pre-Service Teachers, Mentoring, Supported Teaching

References
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  • APA Style

    Philip Dorsah, Moses Abdullai Abukari, Thomas Nipielim Tindan, Bismark Nyaaba Akanzire. (2023). Mentor Wasn’t Always Available: Challenges of Pre-Service Teachers on Supported Teaching in Schools. American Journal of Education and Information Technology, 7(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajeit.20230701.11

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    ACS Style

    Philip Dorsah; Moses Abdullai Abukari; Thomas Nipielim Tindan; Bismark Nyaaba Akanzire. Mentor Wasn’t Always Available: Challenges of Pre-Service Teachers on Supported Teaching in Schools. Am. J. Educ. Inf. Technol. 2023, 7(1), 1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ajeit.20230701.11

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    AMA Style

    Philip Dorsah, Moses Abdullai Abukari, Thomas Nipielim Tindan, Bismark Nyaaba Akanzire. Mentor Wasn’t Always Available: Challenges of Pre-Service Teachers on Supported Teaching in Schools. Am J Educ Inf Technol. 2023;7(1):1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ajeit.20230701.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajeit.20230701.11,
      author = {Philip Dorsah and Moses Abdullai Abukari and Thomas Nipielim Tindan and Bismark Nyaaba Akanzire},
      title = {Mentor Wasn’t Always Available: Challenges of Pre-Service Teachers on Supported Teaching in Schools},
      journal = {American Journal of Education and Information Technology},
      volume = {7},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-7},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajeit.20230701.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajeit.20230701.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajeit.20230701.11},
      abstract = {The goal of the study was to identify the difficulties that pre-service teachers encountered while participating in supported teaching in schools. Using a phenomenology design, the study utilized a qualitative approach. Convenience sampling technique was used to sample twenty (20) level 100 pre-service teachers (12 males and 8 females) who were enrolled in a bachelor of education program. Data was gathered through extensive, semi-structured interviews. The majority of the challenges encountered by student-teachers were related to the attitude of the mentors such as mentor absenteeism, mentor lateness, mentor inability to provide student-teachers with necessary information they needed, mentor inability to assist student-teachers, and mentor’s lack of devotion for student-teachers. The partner school related challenges identified were: lack of mentors, inadequate curricular materials, inadequate teaching and learning materials, inadequate textbooks, and inadequate furniture in some schools. It was found that majority of mentors in the partner schools had little knowledge of what supported teaching in schools entailed. Thus the mentors found it challenging to give student-teachers the support and direction they needed. In many instances, mentors were unfamiliar with the new Bachelor of Education Curriculum, which made it challenging for them to offer effective and knowledgeable mentorship. Some college tutors did not provide student-teachers with enough assistance through reflection.},
     year = {2023}
    }
    

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Author Information
  • Department of Science Education, C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Navrongo, Ghana

  • Department of Science Education, C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Navrongo, Ghana

  • Department of Science Education, C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Navrongo, Ghana

  • Department of Education, Gambaga College of Education, Gambaga, Ghana

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