Discussion on the Experience of Mentoring Internship

[[abstract]]The purposes of this research are: (1) to understand the student counseling viewpoints of the mentor in kindergarten, (2) to explore the tactics of student counseling and the interaction between the student teacher and the mentor, (3) to investigate the problems encountered by the mentor in kindergarten, and then to analyze the factors that affects the student counseling of practicum system. This research used eight mentors in Taipei County as study participator. The data were collected through interviews. The major findings are as follows: 1. The major student counseling viewpoints of the mentor in kindergarten were to assist the student teacher in becoming a teacher with competence. The major contents of student counseling were teaching and child care. 2. The mentor expected to establish friendship between his\her apprentice, while they actually remained a master-apprentice relationship. As the student teacher and the mentor became more intimate, they might even built up partnership, friendship, or sisterhood. 3. The most general problems that the mentor encounters were those of student teacher’s learning and of the mentor’s own, and the most serious of which was the attitude of the student teacher. The mentor often dealt with a lot of difficulties when faced with reluctance of the student teacher. 4. The main factor that influenced kindergarten mentoring was the mentor’s experience, and the student teacher’s willingness followed. The mentor gained some positive mentoring strategies, came up with more ideal way in mentoring, and learnt to adjust the approach of mentoring and problem solving from his\her internship. If his\her apprentice lacked learning willingness, the mentor lowered his\her expectations of mentoring. Finally, according to the findings, this research proposed some suggestions aiming at student teachers, their mentors and the teacher education institutions, and future researches.