MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS IN DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING PRACTICES

Professional practice in the classroom is a key component in the preparation and training of teachers, as it allows them to practice teaching in an authentic environment. Despite this, the experiences of student teachers encounter significant fluctuations and these experiences can be directly related to the teacher mentor and their placement in the school. This article is created in the context of improving teaching practices used with student that prepare as teachers in Elementary Education. Although in many cases it is assumed that if a teacher is successful in teaching the classroom, he or she will be able to pass the knowledge and skills to a student intern, it has to be admitted that this is not a natural skill but it can be developed through preparation and training. The focus of this study has been the mentoring relationships between teacher mentor and student teacher during a short paired teaching placement and how this supports professional preparation of student teachers. Findings on the effectiveness of mentoring have yet to be final and more areas need to be studied and further investigated, particularly focusing on the readiness of teacher mentors for their mentoring roles and relations.