RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MENTORSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHERS IN UYO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, AKWA IBOM STATE

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between mentorship and professional development among secondary school science teachers in Uyo LGA of Akwa Ibom State. The design adopted for this study was descriptive correlational survey design. The population of the study comprised all the teachers of core science subjects (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) in public secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Simple random sampling technique was used to sample 8 schools out of the 15 schools in the study area. Ninety six (96) science teachers were sampled using a stratified sampling technique based on subject specialization. A questionnaire titled “Relationship between Mentorship and Professional Development among Secondary School Science Teachers Questionnaire (RMPDSSSTQ)” was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was found to be .72 using Cronbach Alpha statistics. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significances. Findings of the study showed that mentorship practices exist but at a low level and the level of professional development is low with teachers participating in workshops, seminars or subject based training only sporadically. There was a positive and statistically significant relationship between mentorship and professional development among secondary school science teachers. It was recommended among others that schools should establish formal mentorship programmes where experienced teachers are paired with less experienced colleagues for ongoing professional support. Educational authorities should integrate mentorship into teacher development policy.