A Physical Education Mentoring Program to Improve Retention and Performance

Background/Purpose: Over the past decade, issues of improving new teacher retention and improving new teacher job performance have become prevalent in physical education. One vehicle used to address these issues is the implementation of mentoring programs for new teachers. The typical program is school based and attempts to satisfy the needs of all new teachers. However, physical education teachers have very different needs than traditional classroom based teachers, and often find school based mentoring programs to be lacking. The purpose of this study was to examine a mentoring program specifically designed by a school district's physical education administration to address the needs of new physical educators in an urban setting in Massachusetts. It was hypothesized that such a program would be more beneficial for its participants than a generalized mentoring program for all new teachers.

Method: This study was conducted using a qualitative design in which stakeholder interviews were conducted, pertinent documents for the mentoring program and the physical education department were analyzed, and direct observation sessions were undertaken of both stakeholders' teaching and mentoring sessions. Specific research questions used for this qualitative study include a) “What are the attitudes and impressions of stakeholders towards the physical education mentoring program?” and b) “Do stakeholders believe that participation in physical education mentoring facilitates new teacher retention and improved performance?”

Analysis/Results: A Constant Comparative Method (Patton, 2002) of analysis was utilized and data triangulation between the three means of data collection (interviews, document review, and direct observation) was utilized to support or refute developing findings. Specific results include a) the importance of developing strong interpersonal bonds between mentors and mentees, b) the importance of mentors offering mentees social support in the work environment, c) the influence of past experiences in the development of professional attitudes by new teachers, d) mentoring as a means of information dissemination for a department, and e) the importance of administrative support for a physical education mentoring program.

Conclusions: Respondents endorsed the belief that physical education mentoring was important for physical educators in terms of improving both job retention and in terms of improving new teacher job performance. Areas of further study include a) establishment of physical education specific mentoring programs in other settings, b) long-term follow-up analysis of this program to further support or refute these findings, and c) analysis of content-area specific mentoring programs in other specialist areas of education, including adapted physical education.