Evaluating the Outcomes of an Ementoring Program

Abstract

While the term mentor can mean different things to different people, a true mentoring relationship is “characterized by a richness of interdependence between two people” (O'Neill, Wagner, & Gomez, 1996, p. 42). In the last 20 years, mentoring has become more popular in education. The increased interest in mentoring has resulted in part from the development and increased popularity of e-mail and other forms of electronic communication. At Central University we have been conducting an e-mentoring program with the Philadelphia School District. This program pairs teacher candidates from an educational technology class with students from predominately African-American, inner-city elementary and middle schools. These teacher candidates were required to mentor these students while they were working on a school science project. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of this e-mentoring program upon attitudes and potential behaviors of teacher candidates.