The Implementation Of a Mentoring Strategy For Teachers' Professional Development in Elementary School

Abstract

This study aims to discuss two important variables in teachers’ role as educators in elementary school institutions, namely mentoring and professional development. Mentoring is believed to help teachers to enhance their teaching quality and students’ involvement. Professional development refers to teachers’ skills in implementing activities in their teaching-learning process. The method used in this study is literature review by identifying, selecting, analyzing and synthesizing relevant previous articles or data related to the topic. The result of the study confirms that there are five factors contribute to the implementations of a mentoring strategy for teachers’ professional development in elementary school, such as: (1) Teamwork approach; (2) Teachers’ attitude; (3) Exchange of information; (4) Continuous learning; and (5) Teaching skills improvement. The study concludes that a mentoring strategy plays significant role to improve teachers’ professional development during their educational services. The implementation of mentoring is not limited to novice teachers, but it should be applied for all teachers as a manifestation of lifelong learning.