EFFECT OF MENTORING PRACTICES ON TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AT PRIMARY LEVEL IN THE PUNJAB

Abstract

Present study aimed to investigate the effect of mentoring practices on teaches’ professional development at primary level in Punjab. It was also identify difference in teachers’ perception regarding mentoring practices and teachers’ professionals on the basis of gender area, age, and experience, professional and academic qualifications. The research design was causal comparative and study was quantitative in nature. A survey was conducted to collect data. All school teachers’ of public primary schools were the population of this study. Researcher used multistage random sampling technique for data collection. Eight districts in Punjab were selected at first stage. At second stage 306 markaz from selected districts were selected and five teachers from each markaz were selected randomly. The sample of this study was 1530 teachers. Reacher developed two questionnaires as mentoring practices and teachers’ professional development. The reliability of Mentoring Practices Scale for teachers was .927 and the Professional Development Scale for teachers was .914. Both instruments were piloted to ensure validity and reliability. Validity was ensured by seeking opinions from 5 experts, and reliability was calculated by surveying 153 primary school teachers who were not part of the original sample. Researcher personally visited the selected markaz and primary schools. Results of this study concluded that there was no significant difference of teachers’ perceptions regarding mentoring practices on the basis of gender. While, in terms of professional qualification there was significant difference found in teachers’ perception. In professional development, there was no significant difference found in perception of teachers on the basis of gender and professional qualification. Findings concluded that teachers having academic qualification (M. Phil) emphasis more on PD as compared to other qualifications. The results also revealed that highly experienced and aged teachers’ pay great importance towards professional development. So it is recommended that the school management should pay enough attention to teachers’ professional skills. And there may be proper training programmes for the mentor to learn the skills of guiding and developing relationships. Professional development practices help teachers to become effective teachers. So, all teachers should be bound to join PD programme every year.