An e-Mentoring System for Practice Teachers in Vocational High Schools of Taiwan

Background: Practice teachers play the roles of both a student and a teacher in the teacher preparation process. The experiences during practice teaching are a vital part to cultivate a qualified teacher (Mayer, 2002). Internet technology has overcome the limitation of time and space. As seen, remote mentoring through computer and internet has become an inevitable trend in practice teachers training in the future. Aims: The purpose of the study is to develop an e-Mentoring System for student practice teachers in vocational high schools of Taiwan. Sample: The research data, collected by interviewing and expert meeting, are referred as the basis and framework to construct the e-Mentoring system. Method: The main research methods include literature review, interviewing, and expert meeting for achieving the research purposes. Results: The needs for practice teachers’ e-Mentoring system were classified into 5 categories (49 items), including teaching planning and execution, life and personal relationship for practice teachers, classroom management, experimental factory management, and professional knowledge. The major functions of the e-Mentoring system including message board, online forum, bulletin, and thoughts sharing site, displayed by the layout with 5 domains (13 items), Matching mentor/mentee, Communication, Community development/Knowledge sharing, Mentoring support, and Program/ Curriculum management. Conclusion: The website designed by this study has completed preliminary structure, and has been tested to find out about the functionalities, user evaluation, and areas of improvement. Besides the above outcomes, the conclusions are obtained as follows: 1. Online mentoring through database inquiry, online discussion, and emails is a feasible strategy. 2. Using Internet to perform remote mentoring is efficient and effective. 3. The construction of the mentoring website is conducive to teacher preparation institutes, and can be promoted nationwide. 4. The mentoring website can gather long-term mentoring cases and various mentoring records systematically and continuously.