E-mentoring in physical education: promises and pitfalls.
Mentoring can be a critical component of teachers' professional development and retention, yet logistical and fiscal challenges often limit the amount of contact a protégé can have with a mentor teacher. This investigation explored a school district initiative to address this need for more mentor interaction by supplementing traditional face-to-face mentoring with electronic mentoring. Thirty elementary physical education teachers participated in a year-long program that involved workshops, school visits, videotaped lessons, and electronic mentoring via chat rooms. Data were collected from chat room postings and analyzed for frequency of response and quality. In addition, a series of interviews were analyzed via constant comparison process to further understand teachers' perceptions of electronic mentoring. In general, teacher postings were minimal in frequency and quality. The limited use of the chat rooms was likely linked to the teachers' perceptions of electronic mentoring, which included several concerns with the technical and human dimensions of the process.
Department of Kinesiology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. dcothran@indiana.edu
Donetta
D
Cothran
Nate
N
McCaughtry
Roberta
R
Faust
Alex
A
Garn
Pamela Hodges
PH
Kulinna
Jeffrey
J
Martin
D000328:Adult; D004493:Education; D004496:Education, Continuing; D020375:Education, Distance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors; D008875:Middle Aged; D010806:Physical Education and Training / Q000379:methods*; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012938:Social Perception