Out-Segment Supervision in Colleges of Education in Ghana: Barriers and Way Forward (Published)
The purpose of this descriptive survey was to assess and analyse the challenges and suggestions for improving the Out- segment supervision of colleges of education in the Ashanti region of Ghana. The study used 207 link tutors and 334 mentees with a semi-structured questionnaire as primary data collection instrument. Results of the items were analysed using content analysis approach. The study revealed that the Out-segment supervision was being carried out effectively however, there were some challenges that needed to be addressed. Generally, some of the findings were poor vetting of teaching notes, inadequate teaching and learning materials, lack of transportation from college to schools of practice, inadequate advanced preparation by mentees before teaching, poor remuneration, supervisors not arriving on time at mentees’ schools of practice. Management of colleges of education are advised to address these perennial problems until they are no longer teething challenges in the supervision of Out-segment programme.
Keywords: Link Tutors, Mentees, Out-segment, Supervision, Teacher Education
MENTORING IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST- A REALITY OR A FALLACY? (Published)
There is growing interest in teacher induction and widespread support for the idea of assigning experienced teachers to work with newly recruited teachers. Still, we know relatively little about what mentors in the University of Cape Coast (UCC) do, how they think about their work, and what their mentees learn from their interactions with them. This article presents the perception of approximately 150 Lecturers/Assistant Lecturers who were recruited between 2008 to 2013 academic year. As the literature on mentorship indicates, mentorship plays an important role in a mentee’s life therefore, so to sustain and develop experience lecturers, mentorship programmes need to be relevant, personalized and unique. The methodology used in this study employed descriptive design (non-experimental). The target population was made up of lecturers in the University of Cape Coast. The accessible population was made up of all the 270 assistant/ lecturers in the university who were appointed between 2008 to 2013 academic year.The results showed that on the whole respondents acknowledged that mentors play some roles in the mentoring system. Concerning the perceptions of future mentoring, more than half of the mentees had some concerns about future mentoring. About two thirds of the respondents agreed that mentoring issues should be considered during promotions. It was recommended that UCC and administrators in particular should clearly articulate the goals of mentoring programmes and to highlight the ways in which they can directly impact mentee’s achievement.
Keywords: Assistant lecturers, Lecturers, Mentees, Mentoring
