IMPORTANCE OF MENTORSHIP SERVICES FOR IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT IN PRIMARY CLASSES DURING PEDAGOGICAL INTERNSHIP

Abstract

The Mentorship Program implemented in our country has been specifically designed for the subject teachers teaching at the secondary general schools and senior secondary schools. Provision of Mentorship services is aimed to provide support by offering necessary and timely advice for improvement of teaching activities, while engaging high school students/pupils in active education process in order to foster the skills of the modern age and develop human potential, as a result. In this article, the author comes up with an idea that the provision of mentorship service during pedagogical internship would be a necessary process. In fact, mentoring gives impetus to development and mentoring process helps the interns (i.e. student assistants) to properly apply their skills and knowledge within and environment of mutual cooperation; encourages them to move forward with confident steps without compromising the interests and pride of a class teacher. Thanks to mentorship, the mentors can support teachers and interns in engaging students in a real learning environment, organizing the learning process in accordance with their interests, and implementing all the possibilities of their education. While providing psychological support to the development and improvement of professional competence of pedagogical staff, a mentor will: 1) Evaluate the real situation in educational institution or high school; 2) Organize and observe the improvement process of pedagogical staff, providing classroom and/or distance support; 3) Evaluate the improvement process of the pedagogical staff. Undoubtedly, the rapid reforms have affected the progress of pedagogical practice in universities. Each of the activities carried out by students during the pedagogical practice is regulated by official documents It is recommended to consider the following in the evaluation of knowledge and skills that students can gain during pedagogical practice: - Find out interests and needs of the students to assess how they are learning, - Assess the potential of students to select teaching aids that may be useful, - Identify students’ ability to approach them individually, - Determine the stages of the lesson, - Develop children's interest in learning outside the school environment, - Be able to evaluate students' learning achievements, - Build a useful learning and teaching process, manage the class, - Systematically register students' learning achievements, - Create a favorable environment and interactive lessons, achieve educator-learner cooperation during the training,Ensure the provision of life skills, results-oriented and personality-oriented characteristics. Finally, if the Mentorship Services are systematically applied during pedagogical internship of the interns, current gaps will be addressed which in turn will result in the better improvement of the quality of education.