Description
Schools across the country are struggling to retain STEM teachers, particularly secondary math and science teachers. Mentoring has been a successful tool to help build the confidence of novice teachers and to help lower attrition rates. Further, because it takes time and support to develop robust pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), the mentoring a teacher gets early in their career has the potential to help to develop this knowledge base for greater success in the classroom and for increased student achievement. This study sought to document the supports that novice secondary math teachers get as part of formal mentoring relationships and to delineate the assistance that new teachers get from mentors in developing their PCK. I found that novice secondary math teachers are supported in logistical and emotional ways as a result of formal mentoring relationships. However, a large portion of mentees are unsupported or are partially supported in their PCK development, and there are subdomains of PCK for which additional support is needed. Most of the PCK subdomains that novice teachers need additional support with involve the daily activities within the classroom, such as lesson planning and reviewing student assessment data to plan instruction. Educational leaders should work to examine their current mentoring programs to assess the degree to which PCK is a focus for the mentors and mentees, and adjust their programs accordingly to meet the needs of novice teachers particularly as they pertain to developing skills related to the nuances of teaching their content area.
