Abstract:

School Based Learning takes place in the first and second semesters at a University of Technology in South Africa. During the placement of student teachers at the identified schools, mentors teachers play an important leadership role in guiding them towards their professional development. One hundred and fifty (150) student teachers, 85 of which were female and 65 males doing 3year B.Ed (FET) level of training were randomly selected from a population of 435 students to participate in the study. The students were from the diverse socio-cultural background of the South African society. Mixed-method quantitative and qualitative approach was used. A questionnaire containing 20 items on a five point Likert scale was used to obtain information from the respondents. One hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires were administered to the respondents all they were timeously returned and were used for the study. The data collected was analysed using SPSS statistical procedure to get the mean, standard deviation while the t-test parametric test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. Interviews were also used conducted. Four students who were randomly selected were interviewed. The results indicated that although mentors were helpful, students would sometimes feel that the mentors’ behaviour and attitude towards them was not like that of leaders with leadership attributes. The article thus aims at proposing a framework that could establish a better relationship between the mentors and the student teachers during school based learning.

Keywords:

Mentor, Perceptions, Student teachers, Mixed-method, Leadership attributes.