The Evaluation of New Mentoring Program for Novice Teachers according to Their Perceptions

The primary purpose of this research was to find out what novice teachers in Turkey think about the new mentoring program introduced by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) in February, 2016. In order to collect more detailed data and gain a deep insight regarding research problem, qualitative research methods were preferred. The study group consisted of 22 newly appointed teachers during the 2016 academic term. A semi-structured interview form was used as data collection instrument. According to the results novice teachers think that the new mentoring program is beneficial in terms of classroom management, communication skills, professional efficacy; extending network and gaining experience. As for the disadvantages of the program, the novice teachers stated that they cannot choose their mentor teachers, the mentor teachers do not know the program in detail as it was used for the first time, there are a lot of trivial forms that novice teachers and mentor teachers had to fill in.


Introduction
Profession of teaching is among the oldest profession in the world, which has existed historically and will remain as such in the future in one form or another.It is not quite possible to substitute this profession's function completely by another medium (Ayas, 2009).The nature of this profession requires teacher candidates to go through a particular set of long-time and systematic training as it is not a profession for everyone (Aydın, 2011).The nature and quality of the training has important bearing on teachers' qualification ISSN 1392-0340 E-ISSN 2029-0551 Pedagogika / 2017, t. 126, Nr. 2 (Şişman, 2014, p. 219).Therefore, it is important that they receive good prevocational and post vocational training as only well-trained teachers can create a highly qualified learning environment for their students.
The profession of mentoring carries a sense of duty due to its nature of being in a constant engagement with young people.The importance and responsibility that is placed on mentoring is much more than that of any other profession.The reason is that 'teaching' is not a teacher's only reasonability (Bağçeci, Yıldırm, Kara, & Keskinpalta, 2015).Teachers bear the heavy responsibility of raising the future generation, which in return requires teachers to demonstrate certain set of skills and behaviors.According to Şişman, a modern and ideal teacher should have strong communications skills; love his/her job and engaging with other people; be passionate about serving society, and be understanding and gracious towards his/her students (2014, pp. 228-229).The ideal teacher should make the process of learning easier and he/she should be patient and good at problem-solving.It is possible to expand this list and add other positive qualifications and skills to it.But the real question is how novice teachers should be trained so that they become tomorrow's ideal teachers.This question is the crux of the problem, for which many around the world seek answers and develop solutions.
There are certain problems in teacher education in Turkey, among those are the change in student profile in teacher education programs, overcrowded classrooms, theory-heavy training programs that lack practical application, the process of enrollment, pedagogical formation and teacher appointments, the negative perception towards teachers, low motivation, and infrastructural problems in information technologies.Moreover, the existing problems in Turkey's higher education exacerbate the problems and make them more visible (Yanpar-Yelken, 2009;Şendağ and Gedik, 2015).Similarly, the disconnect between theory and practice in these programs is already noted by many national and international researchers (Yıldırım, 2011;Yanpar, 2009;Yirci, 2009;Zeichner, 2010;Smagorinsky, Cook, & Johnson,2003;İnan & Bayrak, 2015).
It is possible to observe an important insufficiency in the current education practices in terms of supports given to teachers such as ignoring areas that could potentially improve the personal and social well-being of teachers and lack of diversity among those who can provide these supports.Similar observations are also identified in the relevant literature on the evaluation of the current education programs.For example, they identified that the current programs do not sufficiently address the needs of candidate teachers, do not sufficiently use appropriate methods, techniques and equipments, that mentor teachers do not regularly accompany candidate teachers in classrooms and the level of support that mentor teachers give to novice teachers is insufficient (Özonay, 2004;Balkar & Şahin, 2015).The MoNE has adopted new regulations to address these problems in teacher education programs.
The existing practice of the mentoring program is based on the Guideline 2456947 -Guideline on the process of mentoring, which is adopted on 02/03/2016 by the MoNE.This guideline has amended the process and function of the mentoring program.As the guideline has come into force, novice teachers are subjected to the mentoring program during their first six months.This process takes place in education institutions that novice teachers are officially assigned and is run under the overview of the administrative team of the institutions in question and mentor teachers in accordance with the training program designed by the MoNE.In this program, novice teachers have started organizing activities both in and outside the schools and participated in in-service trainings.According to the guideline, in this period, novice teachers are accompanied by mentor teachers in classrooms.The program includes in-class and in-school monitoring activities, practices of mentoring, out of school activities and in-service training programs.
A mentor teacher is chosen by the head teacher of the education institution that a novice teacher is assigned among those who have at least ten years of experience; have been a project coordinator, supervisor or participant in national or international projects; have participated in social and cultural activities such as plays, poetry activities, school newspapers, school journals, school trips and sport activities; have good communication and representation skills; have distinguished themselves in their professions; are in the same branch of education as the novice teacher.Mentor teachers undertake the following responsibilities: a) Co-designing the working program for novice teachers with the head teacher; b) Helping novice teachers with the application of activities in the working program and taking necessary measures c) Monitoring, evaluation and mentoring to ensure that novice teachers take the necessary training according to the working program; d) Transferring their knowledge, experience to the novice teachers and being a good role model for them; e) Doing other relevant jobs that the head teacher gives (MEB, 2016).This program aims to train novice teachers through mentoring.In this sense, mentoring teacher is in a position of a mentor while novice teacher becomes a mentee.

Mentoring program for novice teachers
Novice teachers face new and difficult responsibilities (Caspersen & Raaen, 2014;Achinstein, 2006).These teachers may have difficulty with communicating with students in classrooms, adapting to their jobs and schools and delivering lessons due to their lack of experience and knowledge.The adaptation to the school's system may pose a particular difficulty for them.Therefore, novice teachers may want to overcome the feeling of loneliness, fear, anxiety and hesitancy during their efforts to get themselves accepted by students, colleagues and school management (Güçlü, 2004;Korkmaz, Saban & Akbaşlı, 2004, Sarı & Altun, 2015).It is a good practice to provide them with a professional support program during their first year so that they can overcome certain obstacles that they may experience.In most countries, mentoring program is a widespread method for teacher training.The notion of mentoring has its root in Latin.According to Homer's timeless masterpiece Odysseia, Odysseus, who was the legendary Greek king of Ithaca, entrusted his son Telemachus to his loyal friend Mentor when he went to the Trojan War.Mentor's responsibility was to guide Telemachus when his father was at the Trojan War in his progress and improvement (Clawson, 1980;Colley, 2003, p. 36;Parkin, 2004, p. 127).This mythological root of the word mentor expanded its meaning in time towards a wise and experience person who helps another person's progress.In this sense, mentoring can be defined as the process of matching of a skillful and experienced person with a less experienced and skillful person in order to improve the latter's capacity in his/her job and career (Roberts, 2000;Barutçugil, 2004;Godshalk & Sosik, 2003, p. 423;Cunningham, 1999;Cakir & Kocabas, 2016).
Ingersolland Strong (2011) define mentoring as the professional support of a teacher who shares the same occupation with the less experienced teacher for the latter's progress on planning, application and evaluation.According to Cullingford, mentoring as a process of learning and teaching makes it easier for novice teachers to learn the intricacies of their profession and to develop a sense of belonging (2016, p. 60).
A mentor provides guidance for a mentee in two main areas, which are psychosocial and vocational/career (Chao, 1997;Kram, 1988).Psychosocial guidance aims to support an individual's competence and self-esteem.Vocational development support, on the other hand, incorporates coaching and aims to demonstrate the difficulties of the profession and to introduce the mentee to important figures in the mentee's profession (Friday & Friday, 2002).In this sense, mentoring helps novice teachers adapt to their new jobs and reduces the possible level of isolation that they may experience.A novice teacher who feels much better is more likely to seek help for technical issues (Feiman-Nemser, 1996;Norman & Ganser, 2004).
The official program of matching experienced teachers with novice teachers started in the '70s (Ganser, 2002).In the '80s, mentoring became a popular strategy for vocational development of novice teachers' (Feiman-Nemser, 1996;Little, 1990;Wang & Odell, 2002).The increase in the popularity of mentoring in education and other areas may be partly due to mentoring programs' benefits in terms of providing in-service training for personnel and their personal improvements (Feiman-Nemser, 1996;Little, 1990;Wang & Odell, 2002).
Being a mentor incorporates various functions such as becoming a role model, a source of motivation, a good communicator; being a supervisor and protective, providing guidance and suggestions and finally improving skills.Mentors should be ready to bear all these responsibilities for novice teachers (McKenna, 1998).To become a mentor, one needs to have the necessary knowledge, skill, vocational competence and personal abilities.The characteristics of a good mentor include, but not limited to, being a good listener in personal relations, having the ability to motivate people and the power of persuasion, being good at time-management (Kay & Hinds, 2005).A mentor's most important function among others is the highly useful advices of an experienced practitioner to a mentee.In addition, having a mentor has the benefit of being able to exchange ideas, seek guidance and get support (Culingford, 2016, p. 78).In some researches, it is argued that the mentoring process reduces stress and anxiety, increases self-esteem, improves vocational skills, raises awareness for different approaches, familiarizes one with a workplace's culture and practices, creates opportunities for meeting new people and increases job satisfaction (Bush & Coleman, 1995;Seibert, 1999;Ensher, Thomas, & Murphey, 2001;Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 2002;Hobson & Sharp, 2005;Management mentors, 2016;Daresh & Arrowsmith, 2003).
It is important that the mentoring process is very well planned given the potential benefit that it is expected to yield for novice teachers.The application of a new mentoring program for novice teachers in Turkey since the beginning of 2016 aims to utilize mentoring more effectively while making this process more official.In this sense, the primary purpose of this research was to find out what novice teachers in Turkey think about the new mentoring program introduced by the Ministry of National Education.To achieve this objective, the novice teachers selected for the purpose of this study are asked the following questions: 1) What are the strengths of mentoring program at school? 2) What are the weaknesses of mentoring program at school? 3) What is the most important contribution of mentoring to you as a novice teacher?4) What do you recommend to improve the mentoring system? 5) Please evaluate the effectiveness of this mentoring system as (1) very poor, (2) poor, (3) moderate, (4) good, (5) excellent.

Methodology
This study adopts a qualitative research method with a phenomenological perspective.Phenomenological research is concerned with different modes of understanding of human experiences and focuses on how a phenomenon is perceived, defined, felt, judged, remembered, explained by people and how they talk about it with others (Patton, 2014, p. 104;Merriam, 2013).Phenomenological research focuses on facts which are already known yet without a deep and detailed understanding (Yıldırm & Şimşek, 2011, p. 72)."Content analysis has been defined as a systematic, replicable technique for compressing many words of text into fewer content categories based on explicit rules of coding" (Stemler, 2001).

Study Group
In a qualitative research, a researcher's aim is not to generalize the outcome of his/ her study; rather, to comprehensively analyze the main problem.Thus, the researcher defines the study group willingly or purposefully to examine the problem in detail (Creswell, 2012).The researcher's study group comprises 22 novice teachers who have agreed to take part in the study from two central districts in Kahramanmaraş.Critical case sampling is used in the selection process.In critical case sampling, those who have suitable characteristics for the purpose of the study comprise the study group.22 novice teachers from two central districts in Kahramanmaraş who have begun working in 2015-2016 academic calendar have joined the study group.The number of the novice teachers by school types is as follows: As shown in Table 1, most novice teachers are working in primary schools (n = 9).In terms of gender, most of the participants in the study group are women (n = 20).The number of male participants is 2. The participants are aged between 22-40.The number of teachers according to their branches is shown at Table 2.According to Table 2, most participants are preschool teachers, which is due to the MoNE's efforts to increase the number of preschooling.
In the analyses of the 22 cases of mentor teacher and novice teacher matchingsin these schools in terms of gender and branch, in 12 cases, novice teachers and their mentors are of the same gender while 10 of them are opposite gender.In terms of branches, a particular importance was placed to ensure that novice teachers and mentors are by and large from the same branches (n = 12).There are only 3 cases where novice teachers and their mentors are from different branches.

Data Collection and Analysis
The study's data is collected through a semi-structured questionnaire, which consists of 4 open-ended questions which were created by the researcher based on his field work.These questions were presented to four academics who are experts in the field of education to meet the acceptability criteria.The questions took their final forms based on their feedback.The questions were tested on three novice teachers outside the study group in order to ensure that the questions are clear and easy to understand.They were given to the novice teachers in writing and the filled forms were collected on the following day.The participants were asked to not put their names on the forms and explained that the information they provided would only be used for this particular study.The written data on the forms were digitized by transferring to Microsoft Office Word by the researcher.For the qualitative analysis, Nvivo 8 was used.The forms were coded such as T1, T2, T3, … T22 while ensuring that expressions that represent the participants were also coded in a similar fashion.
In the content analysis, the data obtained from the questionnaire is examined thoroughly and coded according to the emerging meanings in light of the purpose of the study, which are then categorised by similarity and difference.The related codes were put together to create themes.Two researchers worked together to make sure that the coding and categorisation processes was organised effectively (Creswell, 2012, p. 203) and then the codes and themes were submitted to two experts in the education department for feedback.Moreover, to maintain the internal consistency (reliability) of the coding, the data were coded twice by the researcher in two different timeframes.The second coding took place two weeks after the first coding.The two coding were then compared and the reliability was checked by Miles and Huberman's (1994) formula (Reliability = number of agreements/total number of agreements + disagreements X 100).In the reliability check specially designed for this study, the intercoder reliability was 98 %.Therefore, it is possible to argue that during the content analysis process the reliability of the coding was particularly high.

Findings and Comment/Evaluation
Th e participants were initially asked the question of "What are the strengths of mentoring program at school?" Th e Figure 1 shows the fi ndings of the content analysis of this question in Nvivo 8.As shown in the Figure 1, the majority of the participants stated that the biggest strength of the mentoring program was obtaining mentor support.10 participants shared this view.Th e second strength, according to the participants, was gaining experience.Novice teachers also highly benefi t from mentoring in terms of classroom management and lesson planning.Th ese fi ndings show that mentoring program help novice teachers particularly with classroom management and lesson planning, which are seen as the fundamental skills for teachers, and support them.Th e teachers' views on this issue are as follows:

"Th e re is a diff erence between what we learn at school [university] and practice. I have started to see the true nature of being a teacher when I started working as a teacher. I greatly benefi ted from my mentor's experiences, especially how I should manage the classroom and communicate with [students]." (T3)
"My biggest shortcoming was lack of experience.It has been a good practice to adapt to this job before actually working as a teacher.As a bonus, I didn't have to leave the city where I live.It was very convenient for me to be able to reach someone when I have questions.My mentor tried to help with me anything."(T6) Another objective of the study was to reveal the weaknesses of mentoring program in Turkey.To this end, the participants were asked the question of "What are the weaknesses of mentoring program at school?".Th e content analysis of the fi ndings of the answers given to this question is shown in the Figure 2.

Fig. 2. Weaknesses of mentoring program at school
As shown in the Figure 2, the novice teachers see the unnecessary amount of forms as the weakest aspect of the mentoring program while also drawing attention to mentor-related issues.Although the fact that the mentoring program is a relatively new program also appears as a source of problem, they are more troubled by the paperwork problems.As noted above, mentor teachers-related issues were also appeared as one of the weakest points of the program and the participants mentioned the unqualifi ed mentor teachers as part of the problem.Moreover, three participants told that [their] mentor teachers were unenthusiastic about mentoring.It might prove useful to re-evaluate the qualifi cations required for mentor teachers in the matching process.On the other hand, certain issues raised by the participants about mentor teachers are in fact related to schools that run the mentoring program.For example, these teachers said they participated in mentoring program in a diff erent school instead of their assigned schools.Th ey argued that this situation made it more diffi cult for them to adapt to their real place of duty.Two particular examples of views from the participants on the weaknesses of the mentoring program is as follows: "I have to fi ll in too much trivial forms.I don't think these forms are useful.Also, we do not have much information about how to fi ll in these forms as the practice [the mentor- "Th e school that I am assigned is diff erent; I am participating in the program in a different school.Th is program [the mentoring program] could've been more successful in the school that I am assigned.We could at least adapt to the school, students and the city.When we offi cially start our job, the adaptation process will restart again.Also, I wish we had the chance to select our own mentor teachers.We could've coordinated better."(T17) In the research, the participants were asked the question of "What is the most important contribution of mentoring to you as a novice teacher?" in order to reveal the most important contribution of the program to novice teachers.Th e following themes as shown in the Figure 3 appeared out of the analyses of their answers: Another question that the participants were asked was how the mentoring program in Turkey would be improved.In this sense, they were asked the question of "What do you recommend to improve the mentoring system?" and the analyses of the corresponding answers are shown in the Figure 4. Novice teachers' number one recommendation for the mentoring system's improvement was reducing the number of offi cial forms.Th ey see most of these forms unnecessary and useless.Th e second recommendation was that the mentoring program should take place in schools that novice teachers are offi cially assigned.Th ey believe that they would gain more experience should they participate in the programin their place of duty.Another recommendation wasthat novice teachers should be provided more details about the content and functioning of the program and their active involvement throughout the program should be guaranteed.Only two novice teachers expressed the view that the program should be completely abolished.Some of the teachers' views on this theme is as follows: ISSN 1392-0340 E-ISSN 2029-0551 Pedagogika / 2017, t. 126, Nr. 2 "I only observe my mentor teacher in the mentoring program.When there are two teachers at the classroom, I take a backseat.I think after a certain period of time [in the mentoring program], I should be allowed to go into the classroom and deliver the lesson myself as a real teacher."(T16) Our branches are different.My mentor teacher is a really good teacher but because his/her branch is different, I can't ask him/her every question I have.Teaching methods in my branch is quite different.In the matching process [of novice teachers with mentors], it is important that teachers and mentors from same branches are matched; otherwise, the program would not yield any benefit."(T19) Novice teachers are asked to rate the mentoring program on a scale of 1 to 5. In the questionnaire, this is asked by the sentence "Please evaluate the effectiveness of this mentoring system as (1) very poor, (2) poor, (3) moderate, (4) good, (5) excellent".According to the participants' answers, the success of the program has been rated as (3) moderate.

Conclusion and Evaluation
This research aimed to evaluate the mentoring program that has started for the first time in 2016 according to the novice teachers' opinions by adopting a qualitative research method.22 novice teachers from two central districts in Kahramanmaraş joined the study group.According to the findings of the study, being able to obtain support from a mentor emerged as the biggest strength of the program.It is already known that mentoring reduces the feeling of isolation/loneliness among novice teachers (Feiman-Nemser, 2003).Other strengths of the program include gaining experience about classroom management, lesson planning and communication skills.In their research, Balkar and Şahin (2015) identified the classroom management as the biggest issue for novice teachers.Effective communication, on the other hand, is as another area of concern after the classroom management.According to the research's findings, the mentoring program provided novice teachers with the required competence during their first years.These findings are similar with Kajs (2002) and Lindgren's (2005) research results which found that novice teachers received both professional and personal support from their mentors.
According to the research's findings, the two weakest aspects of the mentoring program were the unnecessary amount of paperwork/forms and mentor teachers-related problems.In his research in 2016, Köse comes to the conclusion that there is a large amount of paperwork during the mentoring program, which increases the workload of school management and mentor teachers and is considered as a negative aspect of the program.According to novice teachers' opinions, mentor teachers should be selected among teachers who are more competent and enthusiastic about mentoring.According to Gökçe and Demirhan (2005) their high competencein teaching and constantly improving themselves have a determining role on novice teachers' progress.In this research, some participants highlighted mentor teachers' unenthusiasm.Because this issue can affect the effectiveness of the mentoring program, it is important that more attention is paid to the selection process of mentor teachers.Moreover, measures that would encourage experienced teachers for mentoring can be taken.
Another negative aspect of the program that appeared in the novice teachers' opinions is the lack of information on this newly started program.On this issue, the MoNE should create an information pack for both mentor teachers and novice teachers.Another negative aspect of the program is that schools that run the program are not the same schools that novice teachers are officially assigned.A similar finding was also apparent in Köse's research (2015).For example, if a novice teacher who is assigned to a school in rural area has to participate in the program in a school at the city center that has high standards in terms of student profiles and facilities, it is quite likely that this teacher would have more difficulty when he/she officially starts to work in his/her assigned school.This would reduce the effectiveness of the program and have negative impact on the benefit that the program would otherwise yield.
According to novice teachers' opinions, the most important contributions of the mentoring program to them are the opportunity it creates for learning the intracies of the job and networking with new colleagues.As Gratch (1998) stated mentoring can help to alleviate the isolation that novice teacher experienced in the beginning of the profession.In terms of other contributions of the program, learning new teaching methods and improving communication skills follow the above-mentioned contributions of the program.These would help novice teachers becoming better teachers.Klasen and Clutterbuck (2002, p. 40) also argue how mentoring yield similar results in terms of personal improvement.
In the research, the improvement of the mentoring program was also questioned and the participants were asked about their recommendations to improve the program.Most novice teachers suggested that the paperwork should be reduced and completely eliminated.Köse (2016) also suggests that the number of forms and documents in the process should be reduced.Another recommendation was that novice teachers should participate in the program in their assigned schools as it would make the adaptation process easier for them.
Another important objective of the research was the matching process by gender and branches.A particular importance was placed to make sure that most novice teachers and mentors are from same branches (n = 12).However, there were still cases of matching where novice teachers and their mentors did not share same branches.It is argued that being in the same branch with novice teachers haveits own benefit in terms of teaching.Balkar and Şahin (2015) argued a similar conclusion in their research.Novice teachers and school managers shared the opinion that experienced teachers who would under-Pedagogika / 2017, t. 126, Nr. 2 take mentorship should share same branches with novice teachers, with whom they are matched.LoCasale-Crouch, Davis, Wiens and Pianta (2012) identifieda similar finding, saying that novice teachers who are from same branches with their mentors think that they were able to get more support from their mentors.Therefore, the commonality that novice teachers have with their mentors would increase the effectiveness of the support that mentors provide.On the other hand, the question of gender did not change the participants' opinions, which suggest that novice teachers did not consider gender as a determining factor on their opinions on the mentoring program.
The last question novice teachers were asked was on the evaluation of the success of the mentoring program.They rated it as "reasonably successful" -(3) moderate.This is below the expectation from the program, which is expected to yield numerous benefits to both novice teachers and schools.One of the reasons is that this is the first time that an official mentorship program has been applied.The lack of information on the process, the amount of paperwork, shortcomings in the matching process and the passive position of novice teachers in the process may have contributed to their rating.Examining successful mentoring programs in other countries may be useful to revise the current mentoring program in Turkey.Howe (2006) reviewed the most effective teacher induction programs from Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the United States in his research and concluded that these programs have common characteristics.Successful mentoring programs for novice teachers create a supportive environment promoting time for collaboration and reflection.Also the emphasis of competent mentor teachers is on assistance rather than assessment.
The findings of the study carry important implications for the mentoring policy.Below are the suggestions that have come out in lights of these findings for the practioners, policy-makers in education and mentor teachers.
a) The number of forms that novice teachers and mentor teachers have to fill in should be reduced as much as possible.b) The criteria for becoming a mentor teacher should be re-evaluated and mentor teachers should be selected among those who are enthusiastic about mentoring.c) Measures should be taken to ensure that novice teachers and mentor teachers are from same branches.d) Novice teachers should undertake the mentoring program in their assigned schools.E-mentoring practices may be adopted for novice teachers assigned to geographically difficult areas.e) Novice teachers and mentor teachers should be informed better about the program in order to overcome issues due to the fact that this is first year of the program in practice.f) In the matching process, novice teachers and mentor teachers should be given the right to select their own mentors and mentee, making the whole process more flexible. ISSN ISSN 1392-0340 E-ISSN 2029-0551 Pedagogika / 2017, t. 126, Nr. 2

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.Th e strengths of mentoring program at school , t. 126, Nr. 2 ing program] is new.Mentor teachers are also looking for information on this from other sources."(T21)

Fig. 3 .
Fig. 3. Th e most important contribution of mentoring to the novice teacher

Fig. 4 .
Fig. 4. Novice teachers' recommendations to improve the mentoring system

Table 1
Number of the Novice teachers by school types