| In China, there is a tradition of experienced mentoring teachers helping young teachers to develop their teaching competencies, namely mentoring system. However, we learn little about the operation of this traditional system. What factors affect mentor teachers' support?{09}Which methods and in what aspects do mentor teachers support first-year teachers? Do first-year teachers make any progress in their teaching competencies? By studying these questions, it can help to enrich theories of mentoring system and teacher development, and also help to improve the mentoring system in China.; In the study, eight pairs of mentors and first-year teachers in three middle schools in Guangzhou were invited to participate in the inquiry. Qualitative research methods, including in-depth interview, field observation and document analysis were employed.; The findings from this study reveal that support of mentoring teachers is frequent. The factors, which facilitates the support of mentors teachers, include the objective factors (e.g., light teaching load, mentors teaching the same subject in the same grade as the novices), and psychological factors (e.g., expressing mentors' altruism, giving novice teachers freedom, maintaining novice teachers self-esteem). Methods, which mentors mainly use, include providing resources, coaching class, supervising class, preparing class together, and holding discussion in office. Mentors help substantially first-year teachers to understand and deal with questions related to content, students, teacher-centered teaching methods, and classroom management. With regard to student-centered teaching methods and development of student abilities, mentors' support to first-year teachers tends to be weak, sometimes even exerting negative influence.; On the basis of empirical findings, the author raised some theoretical considerations. This study finds that in addition to the reciprocity theory, freedom theory, and attribution theory, altruism theory and social learning theory can also be used to explain mentor teachers' support to new teachers. Regarding teacher concerns, the new teachers first focus their concerns on their teaching task, then on classroom control. Moreover, the degree of complexity of teachers' concerns, and the causality among various stages of teacher concern, may affect the successive development of concerns. This study also give some suggestions about the criteria of selecting mentors, and propose directions for developing methods and contents of support, enhancing collaborative teacher culture, and improving teacher education. |
