The Role of Mentor-Student Relationship in Formation of Professional Competence in Pedagogy Students

Abstract

Using the rating scale of perceived frequency of action, students (N = 87) completed the practice teaching, evaluated the perceived attitude of the teacher-mentor and university methodologist in four categories: emotional support, cognitive support, stimulation of initiatives, monitoring and evaluation. Also, students completed the questionnaire "Self-evaluation of pedagogical thinking", allowing to estimate the characteristics of their pedagogical thinking on two parameters: inclination to improvisation and self-esteem experience. We revealed a difference in the assessment of the perceived attitude of teacher-mentor and university supervisor: the latter is seen as less influential figure in all categories of evaluation (p<0.01). However, there was only one significant relationship between perceived attitude of mentor and features of pedagogical thinking: emotional support of the supervisor is positively correlated with self-esteem proficiency (p = 0,007). Thus, there is a discrepancy between the subjective evaluation of the degree of influence of mentors and indirect estimation of the contribution of interaction with them in the development of competence of the student.