Mentoring Support of Cooperating Teachers: Insights from Filipino Practice Teachers

ABSTRACT The literature reveals the indispensable role of mentoring in practice teaching. However, little is known about the mentoring support the Filipino cooperating teachers (CTs) extended to their practice teachers (PTs). Also, no study has been conducted yet on mentoring using a constructively aligned scale with the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST). Through sequential explanatory mixed-method design, this study determined the extent of CTs’ mentoring support from the viewpoint of the PTs. There were 840 PTs (680 females, 160 males) from a public university who participated in the survey using the Mentoring Practices Scale. Besides, 25 randomly selected PTs’ portfolios were content analysed to substantiate the quantitative data. Findings revealed that the CTs provided mentoring to a very great extent along with personal, career, professional knowledge, instructional process, and role modelling supports. Indeed, though preliminary research, this study serves as a take-off for strengthening the mentoring activities to benefit both Filipino CTs and PTs.