PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHERS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MENTORING ACTIVITY
Personal and Professional Development of Teachers in the Context of the Mentoring Activity

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents the results of a qualitative research based on the focus-group method, which aimed to identify the professional and personal development needs of mentors and novice teachers, in relation to the requirements of the educational context and career development. We set out to identify and analyse what are the opinions of the mentor teachers on the way the mentoring activity is carried out, from the perspective of the roles held by the mentors, compared to those of the beginners who benefit from collegial support. The obtained results show both the similar needs of the two groups of participating teachers, as well as those that differ. Thus, the needs for training communication and relationship skills, empathy and organisation of the didactic act are common. The particularities are that the mentors more often state the need to improve their counselling techniques regarding the appropriate application of strategies specific to the instructive-educational activity, while the beginners add, in addition to this, the need for self-fulfilment and creativity. These results constitute the foundation for the development of a mentoring programme structured on the development of the skills necessary for mentors to support beginning teachers in classroom management and their own career development.

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