Preservice teachers’ perceptions of their mentoring in primary mathematics teaching

Abstract

A literature-based instrument gathered 147 final-year preservice teachers’ perceptions of their mentors’ practices related to primary mathematics teaching. The five factors that characterise effective mentoring practices in primary mathematics teaching had acceptable Cronbach alphas, that is, Personal Attributes (mean scale score=3.97, SD [standard deviation]=0.81), System Requirements (mean scale score=2.98, SD=0.96), Pedagogical Knowledge (mean scale score=3.61, SD=0.89), Modelling (mean scale score=4.03, SD=0.73), and Feedback (mean scale score=3.80, SD=0.86) were .91, .74, .94, .89, and .86, respectively. This survey instrument may have applications for mentoring in secondary mathematics and can be re-designed to investigate mentoring practices in other key learning areas.