Mentoring for Effective Teaching - An Analysis of Austrian Mentees’ School-based Mentoring Practices

Abstract

Practical school mentoring is very important in Austrian teacher education. This quantitative study shows feedback from student teachers (n=114) on their experiences in supporting mentors based on the five factors (personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modelling, and feedback). Trained mentors accompany primary school teaching student teachers during their internships. Results show that mentees recognize that their mentors maintain a pleasant relationship (95.7), are enthusiastic (92.1%) about mentoring-practice, convey positive attitudes (87.8%), are attentive in their teaching activities (88.6%), and provide oral feedback (85.9%).

When assessing the personal attributes of the mentors, the mentees gave a percentage value higher than 69% for the six items. This indicates that the mentees have a good impression of their mentors. The article shows that in future mentoring practices should focus primarily on areas such as systemic issues, structures with planning units, assessments, questions about the feedback culture.