The Faculty of Education created a Concurrent Education Mentoring Student Experience Program, which is now being offered to first and fourth-year students in the Concurrent Education Program.  In this program, fourth-year students mentor first-year students in the Concurrent Education Program.

We are engaged in conducting action research that will explore the educational outcomes and program effectiveness of a post-secondary concurrent education (pre-service teaching) student-mentoring program. At this university, fourth-year concurrent education students mentor first-year concurrent education students. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the peer-mentoring program increases the sense of integration and satisfaction in first-year concurrent education students, and leadership skills in fourth-year students. Additionally, we hope to gain a better understanding of how these goals can be accomplished. The planned study will seek to answer four research questions, including a) What connections do first-year students make between mentee experiences and adjustment to university, learning, and professional growth? b) What connections do peer mentors make between the experience of peer mentoring and personal growth? c) What are the areas of intersection between the needs of first-year students in the concurrent education program, and opportunities for professional development for fourth-year students? d) What formats and approaches best support mutual growth in these relationships? Interns will participate in all parts of the research project, including research design, data collection, data analysis, and publication. An opportunity exists for contributing researchers to become co-authors of our published research.

Positive outcomes were observed with the professional development of mentors, who demonstrated self-reflection and the acquisition of key soft skills for the teaching profession. Mentee participants articulated benefits associated with assistance becoming oriented in student life and their program, academic support, linkage to resources, social and emotional support, and integration into a learning community. We believe our findings will serve to guide mentoring program coordinators and faculty members as they consider adding or enhancing mentoring programs within their teacher education programs.

This study has been approved by the University of Windsor Research Ethics Board and is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Explore Grant.

We recently submitted an article manuscript for publication in the Journal of Teacher Education.

Smith, C., Salinitri, G., Hart, K., Mariconda, H., & Laze, D. (2022). Educational outcomes of a postsecondary concurrent education student-mentoring program. Paper presented at the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education Conference, Virtual.

Mariconda, H., Smith, C., Salinitri, G., Hart, K., & Laze, D. (2022). Educational outcomes of program effectiveness of a postsecondary concurrent education (pre-service teaching) student-mentoring program. UWill Discover 2022 Conference. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/uwilldiscover/2022/2022Day2/8/