Principles for Mentor Teacher Selection

Programs aimed at improving the experiences of beginning teachers are an important part of professional development activities (Furtwengler 1993). Varying greatly in intended purpose, organization, and resources, most programs include as a central feature a veteran teacher who serves as a mentor, coach, or buddy for a beginning teacher. Generally, experienced teachers take on mentoring responsibilities in addition to their work assignments, although they may be released from some or all of their assignments to serve as mentors (DeBolt 1992; Ganser, Freiberg, and Zbikowski 1993). Choosing veteran teachers to serve as mentors is critical to the success of any mentoring program. Recent studies have identified the basic principles that can guide the related processes of selecting prospective mentors and pairing them with beginning teachers (Bey and Holmes 1990, 1992; Gordon 1991; and Odell 1990), principles I will be discussing here.