MENTORING AND THE DIFFERENCE IT MAKES IN TEACHERS’ WORK: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Globally, researchers and education leaders are interested in achieving quality education, which is why different countries have identified continuous professional development (CPD) of teachers as a great measure to attain success in education. Mentoring which is a type of teacher CPD has been implemented in developed countries such as: United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, Asian and Scandinavian countries, among others. However, some countries (Nigeria, Pakistan, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, etc) are yet to introduce teacher mentoring, which may be the reason why the quality of education in such countries is poor, because mentoring is known to guide, support, direct, and develop the competence of teachers, build teachers confidence and sense of belonging in the teaching profession, as well as reduce teacher attrition. This research is aimed at finding out whether mentoring makes a difference in teachers’ work and whether mentoring should be widely adopted or not. The method adopted for this research is the research synthesis which involves the process of bringing together existing research knowledge and findings. Results show that both less experienced teachers (mentees) and experienced teachers (mentors) who have not participated in mentoring developed low self-esteem and they prefer to leave their teaching jobs due to stress, frustration, dissatisfaction, and because they demonstrate incompetence which affects their confidence. While teachers who have participated in mentoring developed confidence, gained leadership and communication skills, they became empathetic, felt valued and had the ability to function independently as classroom teachers. Countries all over the world must, therefore, introduce teacher mentoring and promote its sustainability for effective teaching and learning. Article visualizations: