Classroom Practices of Mentees and Mentoring Challenges in the Execution of Continuous Professional Development Framework

The purpose of the study was to evaluate classroom practices of Primary School Teachers (PSTs) to examine the influence of mentoring under Continuous Professional Development (CPD) framework of Directorate of Staff Development (DSD). The study was also aimed to explore the challenges faced by mentors (District Teacher Educators - DTEs) working under the same framework. The mixed methods approach was adopted to conduct the study. The population for the quantitative part comprises of 2044 PSTs and data were collected from the sample of 137 PSTs through a self-developed classroom observation rating scale to evaluate classroom practices. The population for the qualitative part comprises of 96 DTEs and data was generated from 17 DTEs through semi-structured interview protocol to explore the challenges faced by them during mentoring. Mean and the standard deviation were used to analyze the quantitative data, whereas qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis. The major findings from quantitative data point out that out of a total of seven aspects of PSTs’ classroom practices, there is not a single aspect that falls under the categories of ‘most frequent practice’ and ‘frequent practice’. Four themes including planning skills, teaching skills, communication skills, and classroom management are being practised infrequently; and other three themes including the use of AV aids, assessment of student, and homework are being practised rarely by the PSTs. The main findings from the qualitative data highlight that DTEs are facing many challenges such as lack of teachers’ interest, multi-grade teaching, and overcrowded classrooms.