Explores the cooperating teacher's role as a central feature of the student teaching experience and as it relates to the cooperating teacher's own career. The paper stresses the need for K-12 schools and schools, colleges, and departments of education to acknowledge that teacher preparation is their joint responsibility. (SM)

Surveys of preK-12 cooperating teachers examined demographics, perceptions of field experiences, and perceptions of cooperating teachers' contributions, frustrations, and satisfaction with the job. Results indicated that participants believed they contributed to the development of prospective teachers and derived satisfaction from the task,…

Beginning school teachers (N=13), beginning school librarians (N=2), mentor teachers (N=13), and a mentor counselor were interviewed to elicit their perceptions of the personal and general educational benefits of a state-mandated mentoring program. Cited benefits of mentoring for the beginner included: (1) encouragement and support, particularly…

This study focuses on participants in a state-mandated mentoring program for beginning school teachers, counselors, and librarians during their first year of teaching. Participants included 13 mentor teachers, 1 mentor school counselor, 13 beginning teachers, and 2 beginning librarians. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. In…

For mentoring to remain as one viable component of quality teacher induction, the roles of mentors, the benefits of mentoring and the obstacles to effective mentoring must be scrutinized and questions about the overall value of mentoring must be addressed. In the study discussed in this paper, 24 teachers who served as mentors for beginning…

This study, based on a survey of 302 cooperating teachers, investigated what cooperating teachers learn about themselves when working with student teachers, the impact of serving as a cooperating teacher on one's personal career path, satisfying or problematic features of the role of cooperating teacher, and contributions that cooperating teachers…

This collection of papers identifies critical issues in mentoring and mentoring programs. Paper 1, "Support Behaviors Among Teachers in Authentic Settings" (Deborah L. Bainer), discusses the following issues: (1) mentoring is just one of the types of support behaviors needed and practiced by teachers in elementary schools; (2) support…