In the paper, Petrovska et al. (2018) explore the concept of mentoring in the teaching profession and questions professionals in education in Macedonia whether mentoring can strengthen their skills and competencies. The authors’ research questions are the following: what opinions teachers have towards the mentoring process associated with their work experience? Is mentoring an effective way to facilitate teachers’ professional development? Do teachers’ knowledge and involvement have a consistent impact on their mentorship of novice teachers? Thus, the authors’ thesis is that the mentoring process is a controversial concept that might improve professional’s development but relies heavily on teachers’ work experience and experience in mentoring novice teachers that might contribute to the inconsistency in the process.
The argument made by Petrovska et al. (2018) is based on the contrasting analysis of views and opinions that teachers have towards the mentoring process and states that “teacher’s work experience plays an important role regarding the estimation of the mentoring process” that can diversely affect results of the mentorship (p. 52). The research questions raised by the article include the opinions range in which teachers with different work and mentorship experience express their attitude towards the concept as well as the guidelines and support of mentoring by education organizations is questioned (Petrovska et al., 2018). By analyzing the results of the study, authors refute the claims that “mentor teachers do not have developed social skills for mentoring” and “mentoring as a process does not contribute to the professional development of teachers” (p. 52).
The research implications entail the potential of implementing changes towards the existing guidelines of the mentoring process in Macedonia and introducing new ways to support the operation of mentoring novice teachers. Authors present contrasting opinions of teachers on mentoring using surveys and their analysis. The authors’ conclusions are relevant and validated by evidence gathered from the primary sources of information, including the benefits and weaknesses of the mentorship. However, the limitations of the study are not presented to address possible counterarguments. Nevertheless, the initial argument claiming that the mentoring process contributes to teachers’ professional development, who have more extended work experience, is proved by data analysis that other researchers can further investigate and support.
Reference
Petrovska, S., Sivevska, D., Popeska, B., & Runcheva, J. (2018). Mentoring in teaching profession.International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering & Education (IJCRSEE), 6(2), 47–56. Web.