Education Commons^™

Mentors And New Teachers: A Qualitative Study Examining An East Tennessee School Systems Mentoring Program., Nikki Lynn Manning

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With almost half of all new teachers leaving the profession in the first few years, it is imperative that school systems find ways to support and retain these new teachers. Formal mentoring is a growing necessity. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the effectiveness of one school system's mentoring program.

This study included 4 sets of mentor and mentee teachers. Each set consisted of a beginning teacher in her 1st year of teaching and an experienced teacher trained by the school system to serve as a mentor. This study was conducted in a rural East Tennessee School …

A Model For Peer Mentor Learning: Designing For Skill-Acquisition Among Undergraduate Peer Mentors, Bryce D. Bunting

Theses and Dissertations

This design report details the development of a summer training experience for peer mentors in the Freshman Mentoring program at Brigham Young University. The purpose of the project was to develop an extended training program which would assist peer mentors in developing core mentoring skills necessary for their work with first-year students. The design of the training was informed by a number of theoretical frameworks including experiential learning, reflective practice, and narrative design. The training was evaluated using a post-then survey instrument as well as analysis of qualitative data collected from learners throughout the training. Analyses of these data suggested …

Job Stress, Mentoring, Psychological Empowerment, And Job Satisfaction Among Nursing Faculty, Catherine Emily Ebersole Chung

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The National League for Nursing (NLN) endorses mentoring throughout the nursing faculty career trajectory as the method to recruit nurses into academia and improve retention of nursing faculty within the academy (NLN, 2006). One way mentoring assists faculty is by easing socialization to the culture of the employing institution and decreasing faculty stress (Lewallen, Crane, Letvak, Jones, & Hu, 2003). Mentoring can also be a facilitating factor of an individual's psychological empowerment. Academia is an environment able to foster psychological empowerment, a state in which faculty may be self-directed, highly productive, confident, and find a meaningful connection to their work …

The Reported Needs Of A Teacher Mentoring Program, Kimberly Myers Tillman

Dissertations

The following study was conducted in four public school districts in south Mississippi and involved a combination of 167 administrators, mentors, and novice teachers. The purpose of this study was to measure the reported needs of a teacher mentoring program as perceived by novice teachers, mentor teachers, and administrators. An additional purpose of the study was to examine administrators’ perceptions of how alternate route and traditional route teachers differ in their needs of a teacher mentoring program.

Two multivariate of analysis (MANOVA) tests were conducted to measure the differences among novice teachers, mentors, and administrators in their perception of what …

A Sociocultural-Theory-Based Study Of The Impact Of Mediation During Post-Observation Conferences On Language Teacher Learning, Jane Harvey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The post-observation conference offers a potentially fecund context for promoting language teacher learning, but very little research has been conducted into how this actually happens. Taking Vygotskian sociocultural theory as its theoretical framework, this study examined the mediational discourse of a series of post-observation conferences between a mentor and two practicing English language teachers to investigate the nature of the discourse and the relationship between the mediational discourse and the language teachers` learning. Features of mediational discourse identified a priori (such as intersubjectivity, graduated and contingent help, and externalization of reasoning) were present in the data, but were found to …

An Investigation Of The Influence Of Instructional Coaching On Retention Of Mathematics Teachers, Dorothy Lewis-Grace

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

In 2007, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported in their 2004-2005 Teacher Follow-up Survey that nearly 20% of U.S. teachers leave the profession after their first year of teaching and almost 30% leave after the fourth year of teaching. These percentages are even greater for mathematics teachers.

Using symbolic interactionism, adult learning, and partnership as a theoretical framework, this ethnographic case study investigated and examined the factors that influenced second-career mathematics teachers to remain in the teaching profession and their experiences with instructional coaching. The following guiding research question and sub-questions were pursued in the study: Why have …

The Content Of Electronic Mentoring: A Study Of Special Educators Participating In An Online Mentoring Program, Roberta Gentry

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the content and frequency of interactions that occurred in an electronic mentoring program involving beginning special educators and their mentors. In addition, the characteristics of mentors’ and mentees’ and perceived outcomes of mentees’ were provided. This study sought to address questions about the types of support that new special educators seek and receive. A mixed method research design was utilized to explore the archived transcripts of mentors’ and mentees’ discourse as well as mentees’ and mentors’ post-surveys. Data were analyzed through the use of quantitative and qualitative methods and interpreted through the …

Cross-Racial/Cross-Gender Mentoring Of School Administrators, Zella M. Williams

Dissertations

Abstract The purpose of this study is to determine the perceived effectiveness of the professional mentoring which female African American school administrators and other school administrators have received from their school district, examining the cross-racial and cross-gender pairings of mentors and mentees. After an extensive review of the literature, a cross-sectional, self-reporting attitudinal survey was designed. The survey began with a section of closed-ended questions to gather demographic information. The second section gathered information about the mentoring experience using a Likert scale. The final section consisted of one open-ended question about mentoring effectiveness. The survey was distributed to all certified …

An Attitudinal Study Of Parental Preferences Toward Programs For Underprivileged Youth In A Small City School, Jessica Marie Cave

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The purpose of this study was to examine parental attitudes and preferences toward youth programs in a small city school in Northwest Virginia that offer sports activities and mentoring. The study was conducted through the use of surveys, and an in-depth study of similar research and peer-reviewed journal articles. Special interest was given to the youth's parents' attitudes (with specific emphasis on their children's preferences) toward different, existing programs and interest in specific types of sports activities and mentoring programs. Most studies have focused on evaluating youth programs and the effects of youth programs for troubled youth in large cities, …

Assessing The Value Of A High School Mentoring Program, Janet L. Downs

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

School-based mentoring programs have recently emerged as a potential method to improve pro-social behavior, academic success, resiliency, a sense of school connectedness, and reduce at-risk behaviors and drop-out probability among youth. This action research study surveyed 142 students to assess changes in student attitudes associated with implementing the first year of a sophomore mentoring program at a semi-urban high school in the northwestern United States. The mentoring program was called the Pathfinder program, a youth-to-youth group mentoring program developed and marketed by Varsity Gold Leadership, Inc. The extent of influence the Pathfinder program exerted over concepts related to school connectedness …

The Application Of Creative Leadership Skills In The Education And Mentoring Of Social Entrepreneurs: A Graduate Level Course, Maria J. Rivera

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this project is to fully comprehend the state of social entrepreneurship education through research, and consequently, to design a course on how to apply creative leadership skills to educate and mentor social entrepreneurs and to enhance their problem solving skills. The outcome of the project is a course proposal to build inter-disciplinary knowledge and skills.

Set Up For Success: An Examination Of The Ronald E. Mcnair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program's Mentoring Component, Dwuena Cene' Wyre

Dissertations

Often, individuals are set up to fail. However, effective mentoring can set individuals up to succeed. This nonexperimental cross-sectional, predictive study examines the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program's mentoring component. Specific focus is placed on faculty mentor competency and its impact on McNair student intent to attain a doctoral degree and awareness of graduate school.

Cohen's (1993, 1995) Principles of Adult Mentoring Scale-Postsecondary Education Scale is utilized to assess McNair student perceived faculty mentor competency. Carrera's (2002) measures of effectiveness for the McNair Program's mentoring component are also used in this study.

Sequential multiple regression is the employed method …

Fifth Year Teacher Perceptions Of Induction Programs Upon Teacher Retention, Arleen Reinhardt

Theses and Dissertations

Due to teacher shortages, school districts have offered incentives and alternative licensure programs. Recently, however, school districts have shifted the focus from recruitment to one of teacher retention which places an emphasis upon beginning teacher induction programs. These programs help teachers improve in their craft of teaching, help teachers remain satisfied with their jobs, help teachers enculturate into the districts in which they work, and help to improve student achievement. This quantitative study examined fifth year teachers’ perceptions of their induction programs in terms of teacher retention. The 280 eligible teachers from three different school districts were asked to participate …

Latino Educators Of Tomorrow: Culture-Specific Mentoring For The College Transition, Anna Trevino

Theses and Dissertations

The population of Latino students is growing faster than any other ethnic group in U.S. public schools today; however, the number of Latino teachers throughout the nation has remained low. The Latino Educators of Tomorrow is a new and ambitious Latino educational career program designed to increase the number of Latino students entering teaching as a profession. This research addressed the following questions: 1) What do participants identify as influential in their trajectory towards becoming an educator, and why?; 2) How do LET instructors, acting in the role of mentors, influence participants' desires and plans to become educators, and why?; …

An Analysis On The Experience Of Mentoring Support In A College Alternative Teacher Certification Program, Debra Voutsinas Kilgore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore how college alternative teacher certification (ATC) participants experience mentoring support. The goal was to obtain a rich and deep understanding of the nature of the mentoring experience in a college ATC program through the perspectives of mentees and their mentors. The ATC program was the Educator Preparation Institute (EPI).

Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Eight individuals participated in the study, four were mentors and four were EPI students. A triangulated set of research methods for data collection and analysis was used, including member checks, validation forms, and peer reviews. All the interviews …

It Takes More Than A Whistle: Perceived Characteristics Of Effective School Based Coaches, Jenna Nicole Sage

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School districts across the United States are moving toward tiered models of service delivery such as Positive Behavior Support (PBS) and Response to Intervention (RtI). A common practice in providing support for those initiatives is to develop leadership teams who are facilitated by an education-based coach. With a recent surge in hiring and transitioning of education-based coaches who support PBS and RtI it is increasingly important to understand the perceived characteristics of those coaches who are most effective at providing the social and academic outcomes associated with tiered models of service delivery. This dissertation will use a case study methodology …