Doctoral research in environmental law (Part 1): rationale and some supervision challenges

Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) Students’ Experience of Mentoring

“…Thirdly, that 31.2% of the participants indicated that they were not prepared to return to the same mentor also raises concern. Fourthly, it is evident that mentors should be better prepared for their mentoring roles, as the results of our findings suggest that this is not the case, and this could be done through greater collaboration between schools and university lecturers (Du Plessis, 2013;Moosa and Rembach, 2020), training for mentors about their role and its importance (Baartman, 2016;Hugo, 2018) and short courses and workshops (Moosa and Rembach, 2018).…”

“…Statements related to using hands-on materials (b37), modelling different teaching strategies (b56) and showing how to teach difficult concepts all resulted in scores below 50%. The results thus imply that mentors should not underestimate the value of how they teach, i.e., their modelling, as their examples might inculcate certain trends and beliefs in their mentees (see Du Plessis, 2013;Baartman, 2016;Moosa and Rembach, 2018), even beliefs that might negatively influence the mentee's self-efficacy. The importance of observation to promote self-efficacy cannot be underestimated (Bandura, 1997).…”

“…The findings related to personal attributes highlight a disturbing trend, as most of the combined "often" and "always" responses to individual items resulted in less than sixty percent. This suggests that mentor teachers will have to be made aware of the personal attributes expected by mentees, as fulfilling these roles is vital (Valenčič Zuljan and Vogrinc, 2007;Du Plessis, 2013;Welch et al, 2013). Support (b55), instilling confidence (b41, b57) and positive attitudes (b11), as well as addressing teaching anxieties (b1) are personal attributes that have the potential to promote self-efficacy, i.e., "people's beliefs in their capabilities to produce desired effects by their own actions" (Bandura, 1997, p. vii).…”