The Influences of Feeling of Preparedness, Mentors, and Mindsets on Preservice Teachers’ Value of Teaching Practice

Abstract

The present study examined how preservice teachers’ perceived value of teaching practice is influenced by their feeling of preparedness, perception of student growth mindset, growth mindset about teaching ability, and the support they receive from mentor teachers. We analyzed data from 227 preservice teachers from three universities in Southwest Nigeria for this study. In line with extant literature, perception of mentoring positively mediates the relationship between the feeling of preparedness and value of teaching practice experience. In essence, the more PTs feel prepared, the more they are likely to positively perceive and benefit from mentoring and, consequently, value their teaching practice experience. Additionally, we found that the more PTs feel prepared, the higher they believe they could positively change their teaching to influence student success. Consequently, the more they value their teaching practice experience. We also observed that the relationship between PT’s perception of students’ growth mindset and value of teaching practice is positively mediated by growth teaching mindset, however when holding feeling of preparedness constant, the two variables were not significantly related, except through the influence of the mediator. We concluded with implications of findings, recommendations, and direction for future research.