Mentoring and learning to teach : what do pre-service teachers expect to learn from their mentor teachers?

This research focuses on mentoring in pre-service teacher professional placements. As pre-service teachers engage in their professional placement, they have specific perceptions about what will happen and how their mentor teacher will work with them. Survey research was undertaken with first year and final year pre-service teachers to discover their perceptions about the mentoring relationships in which they were involved in during their professional placements. Specifically, the survey focused on the pre-service teachers’ role in the mentoring relationship, their mentor teachers’ role and the pre-service teachers’ expectations of what they will learn during their professional placements. Responses from first year and final year student teachers were compared in order to discover whether their perceptions and expectations change as they progress through their teaching degree.