Cooperating Teachers’ Mentoring Moves During Internship of Early Childhood Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

Understanding the mentoring practices used by cooperating teachers to guide and support early childhood (EC) pre-service teachers’ learning-to-teach during internship in a disadvantaged environment was the main purpose of this qualitative case study. Three EC pre-service teachers and their cooperating teachers were purposively selected from whom data was collected through interviews, documents, classroom observations, and post conferences. Collected data were analyzed and identified cooperating teachers’ appropriate mentoring behaviors and practices as themes which evolved as a mentoring framework during internship. The findings presented in this study implicate the development of a mentoring framework that will guide the development of cooperating teachers’ capability for effective mentoring.