Three dimensions of mentoring during student teaching practice: professional, advisory and collegial

Student teaching practice in Initial Teacher Education is designed to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge acquired in faculty-based courses and practical experience gained in school-based classes. During this practice, pre-service teachers are guided by trained and qualified mentor teachers, who have a crucial role in their development. This study examined graduated pre-service teachers’ perceptions of three mentoring dimensions—professional, advisory, and collegial—and the relationships and differences between them. The study included 114 pre-service teachers who graduated from three programs at the University of Prishtina’s Faculty of Education: Initial Teacher Education, Pre-school Education, and General Pedagogy. The three mentoring dimensions were strongly and positively interrelated. Mean ratings differed significantly across the dimensions, although the difference was small. Advisory and professional mentoring received nearly identical ratings, while collegial mentoring received a somewhat lower rating. Pairwise comparisons showed a significant difference between advisory and collegial mentoring, but not between professional and advisory mentoring.