Mentor's view of the observation process in Oregon's beginning teacher support program

Graduation date: 1991Mentor teachers are currently seen as a solution to\ud education's dilemma of how to orient beginners into the\ud profession and provide educational advancement for its most\ud capable, experienced teachers. One goal of Oregon's mentor\ud program is to have mentors provide their proteges with\ud instructional assistance through an observation process.\ud The purpose of this study was to explore the quantity and\ud types of observations being conducted by mentors and\ud discover what factors most affect their ability to complete\ud observations for instructional assistance. In order to\ud determine the possible need for differentiation in training,\ud comparisons were made between elementary and secondary level\ud mentors for the quantity and types of observations conducted\ud and for needs related to attitude, skills, and context.\ud A literature survey provided an initial list of needs\ud and attitudes previous researchers have found to be critical\ud to mentors' success. This list was refined through the work\ud of a Delphi Panel. The resulting survey gathered\ud observation-related information from a random sample of two\ud hundred and twenty-five Oregon mentors distributed\ud throughout the state. Data was analyzed using Analysis of\ud variance and Chi square tests at the .05 level to determine\ud if there were significant differences between elementary and\ud secondary level mentors and between twenty-four\ud observation-related factors.\ud A significant difference was found between\ud observation-related factors, the most important being trust\ud between the mentor and protege, availability of release\ud time, the mentor's teaching in the same building as his/her\ud protege, and the protege's willingness to be observed. No\ud significant differences were found between elementary and\ud secondary level mentors in either the quantity and types of\ud observations conducted or in the perceived importance of\ud various observation-related factors