Title: Mentoring Experiences, Issues, and Concerns in the Student-Teaching Program: Towards a Proposed Mentoring Program in Teacher Education
Abstract: Mentoring involves the process of experienced teachers teaching and guiding student-teachers on the different aspects of the teaching-learning process.This study aimed to determine the mentoring experiences of cooperating teachers and student-teachers using quantitativequalitative design.Survey questionnaires based on Hudson's model were distributed and interviews were conducted among cooperating teachers and student-teachers.Means, standard deviations, t-test for independent samples and paired samples t-test were used to analyze the data.Qualitative responses were analyzed and categorized thematically.Findings indicate that the cooperating teachers perceived they greatly mentored student-teachers in terms of personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modeling, and feedback which were validated by the student-teachers except in the area of system requirements wherein they were mentored moderately.The study concluded that the cooperating teachers mentored to a great extent the student-teachers.Provision of continuing professional education for cooperating teachers to enrich their skills on mentoring studentteachers and more time for post-conference were recommended.