Cooperating Teachers’ Knowledge, Belief and Commitment to Their Mentoring Role of PGDT (Post Graduate Diploma in Teaching) Trainees: The Case of Cooperating Teachers in Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate cooperating teachers' knowledge, beliefs and commitment of mentoring PGDT trainees of Bahir Dar University. Adopting descriptive survey design, the study took 43 cooperating teachers using stratified random sampling procedure. The findings indicated that cooperating teachers had adequate knowledge of the goals and processes of mentoring but have limited belief in the impact of mentoring on the professional disposition of student-teachers. Furthermore, the result revealed that cooperating teachers did not view mentoring as an opportunity for professional development. Consequently, the situation requires that cooperating teachers need tailored training on mentoring and the need for consolidating the collaboration between university tutors and cooperating teachers was suggested as possible recommendations.