THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MENTORING BEHAVIOUR AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AMONG TEACHERS

ABSTRACT
The study examined the nature of mentoring relationship and professional development amongst newly qualified teachers and experienced teachers in Lagos State public secondary schools. Descriptive survey design was employed in order to assess the opinions of the respondents. The sample consisted of 100 teachers randomly selected from Lagos State Public Secondary Schools. Five null hypotheses were generated and tested in this study using the Pearson product moment correlational statistics and the t-test statistical tools at 0.05 level of significance. The results show that a significant difference exists in the mentoring behaviour between the mentor and the mentee in the school, and between experienced teachers and the newly employed teachers. Also a significant positive relationship exists between mentoring behaviour and professional development amongst teachers and between teachers’ skills and qualities required for successful mentoring programme in secondary schools in Lagos State. However, no significant gender difference exists in the professional development of teachers in Lagos State secondary schools due to mentoring programme put in place. Based on the conclusions of this study, it was recommended that  experienced teachers and the newly appointed teachers should work hand-in-hand in order to ensure that cooperation exists amongst them and mentoring should be implemented in schools at all levels.