Mentoring as a viable and sustainable form of professional development for physical science teachers

This study reports on mentoring as a form of professional support for South African Physical Sciences teachers coping with curriculum reforms. Using a case study method, we investigated two cases of mentoring. The first case explored a traditional mentoring relationship between a novice teacher and a more experienced and competent teacher whom we referred to as a 'keystone species' of the profession. The second case described a more collaborative form of mentoring between two experienced teachers who exploited each others' strengths in overcoming some of the deficiencies in their practice. The findings of the case study suggest that mentoring although complex does provide a viable means through which professional development efforts can be consolidated, and may be considered as an alternative to the cascade model of in-service training consisting of short one-shot workshops that assumes a 'one size fits all' approach that has been common practice in South Africa.