1. Loren Brown’s Research Proposal

2. 



Apparent causal relationship in how
mentoring affects teacher longevity.
Literature review points to success of new
teachers during first five years and a
mentoring program.
Gap in available literature leaves room for
study.
Quantitative study will likely show benefits of
successful mentoring program.

3. 

The purpose of the study is to determine the
extent a successful mentoring experience has
on forecasting a teacher’s longevity.
The purpose of the study also seeks to
determine what variables are associated with a
successful mentoring experience.

4. 
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
To what extent does a successful mentoring
experience forecast a teacher's longevity in their
profession?
Does a successful mentoring experiences require that
a mentor is familiar with a mentee's content area?
Does a teacher's ability to choose their mentor rather
than he/she being chosen for them contribute to a
successful mentoring experience?

5. 


Hypothesis to be tested: When mentoring is
present new teachers will stay teaching
beyond 5 years.
New teachers that are mentored by teachers
with mentee’s content area will teach beyond
5 years.
When mentors are chosen by their mentees
teachers will teach beyond 5 years.

6. 
Mentoring
◦ Independent variable in the study.
◦ Defined as a multidimensional process that is demarcated by a
relationship between a mentor and a mentee (Ambrosettie and
Dekkers, 2010).
◦ Further defined as a relationship that is contextual (focusing on
cultural and situational features), relational (relationship
between mentors and mentees), and developmental (how
mentors and mentees develop personally and professionally
while aiming toward particular goals (Ambrosettie and
Dekkers, 2010, p. 2)

7. 
Independent variable as tested on the
dependent variable
 Mentor’s knowledge or lack of knowledge of mentee content
area is tested on teacher longevity (dependent variable).
 Teachers receive mentoring or do not receive mentoring as
tested on the teacher longevity.

8. 
Teacher Longevity
◦ Dependent variable
◦ Defined as length of time a new teacher stays in
their teaching career once they begin their career.
◦ Operationally defined as a teacher who stays in the
teaching field longer than 5 years.

9. 
Beginning teachers
◦ Defined as “teachers who often leave the profession in
the first five years because of a sink or swim attitude
imposed on them by administrators” (Hudson, 2012, p.
2).
◦ Operationally defined as teachers who have newly begun
teaching in the classroom.
◦ Distinguishable from pre-service teachers who have
finished their academic studies, but have as of yet to
begun actually teaching

10. 
Mentors and Mentees Roles
◦ Study by Armbrosettie and Dekkers (2010) affirms
the positive or beneficial nature of a mentoring
relationship between the mentor and the mentee.
◦ Mentor provides support and gives feedback,
encouragement, shares ideas, guidance, direction,
and embraces the idea of modeling (p. 5).

11. 
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Mentee engages in professional conversations,
performs tasks as required, works with mentor in
developing skills and knowledge, sets personal goals,
maintains an open line of communication with their
mentor, and actively learns from the mentor.
Current studies shed little light on how mentor’s
interaction with the mentee translates into career
longevity.

12. 

Study shows relationship between a beginning
teacher’s desire to stay in the teaching field and their
participation in a successful mentoring experience
(Dempsey, Arthur-Kelly, and Carty, 2009).
Study strong relationship between beginning teachers
drop-out rates, and the level of guidance they
received during their initial teaching experience
(Whitaker, 2000)

13. 
Mentor expertise is a factor
 Study shows that “the effectiveness of mentoring is closely
allied to the expertise of the mentor as well as the quality
and type of support provided to early career teachers”
(Dempsey et al., 2009).

Mentor selection is significant
 Study shows the mentor who will assist in the mentoring
process should chosen fairly and that every precaution
should be in place to ensure fairness (Futrell, 1988).

14. 
Databases for research
◦ ERIC
◦ Academic One

Keywords for search
◦ Teacher retention
◦ Mentoring and beginning teachers
◦ Modeling and teaching

15. 
Experimental

Threats to internal validity
 Differential selection
 History effect
 Statistical regression
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Threats to external validity
◦ Population validity

16. 
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Group studied will be 20 male/20 female,
ages 20-40, random ethnic background
Pre-test/post-test
Sample must include active beginning
teachers

17. 
Teachers that were mentored when mentor is
knowledgeable of mentee content area
 Questionnaires and interviews
 Measurement will need to be developed

Teachers that were mentored when mentor
was chosen by mentor peer or by mentee
 Questionnaires and interviews
 Measurement will need to be developed

18. 
Adjusting for bias in interviews
 Require more training for interviewer in order to ensure the
fullest possible response while adjusting for subjectivity
 Ensuring that audiotaping occurs so that important
information is not lost

Test validity
 Evidence from test content
 Evidence from internal structure

19. 
Descriptive statistics
◦ Measure of variability
 Central tendency among sampled participants
◦ Looks for the mean score for favorable mentoring
experiences among the 40 research subjects
◦ Accounts for variability in scoring between
participants

20. 
Mean absolute deviation
◦ After viewing differences in scores from interviews
and questionnaires, assign value to the differences
to determine how the score deviates from the
actual mean
 This number will provide insight as to whether there are
corollary or causal factors involved with mentoring and
longevity

21. 
Results of testing sample population is
informed by inferential statistics.
◦ P value is established to determine likelihood of
that the prediction about mentoring is true.
 The focus will be first to establish that the null hypothesis
or “the prediction that there is not difference between the
tested population groups is true” (Gall, Gall, and Borg,
2010).
 This experiment will need to prove a p-value of .05 or
greater to reject the null hypothesis, which make the
general hypothesis more probable

22. 
T tests for independent means will be used to
prove to establish whether the independent
variable (mentoring with content subject
matter expertise and mentee participation
choosing a mentor) was correlated with
effects on the dependent variable (a teaching
career of more than 5 years).

23. 
Risks involve the need for research
participants to remain anonymous.
 Lack of anonymity could inspire recourse for those who
interviews reflect negatively on a previous employer.

Study will be conducted under the auspices of
Liberty Universities’ Institutional Review
Board to ensure that research participants are
protected.

24. 
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In order to gain entry into the proposed
research setting, I will make inquiry and
appeal to the Institutional Review Board and
their designees in order to gain access to a
database of those who have graduated from
Liberty University with a Master’s Degree in
Education from 2006 to present.
Questionnaires can be emailed but interviews
will be more difficult to conduct due to
logistics.

25. 
Research questions and literature review
◦ Complete

Interviews and Questionnaires
◦ 3 months
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Data Analysis
◦ 2 months
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Report of findings, discussion, and
conclusions
◦ 1 month

26. 
Ambrosetti, A., & Dekkers, J. (2010). The
interconnectedness of the roles of mentors
and mentees in pre-service teacher
education mentoring relationships.
Australian Journal Of Teacher Education,
35(6), 42-55.

Dempsey, I., Arthur-Kelly, M., & Carty, B.
(2009). Mentoring early career special
education teachers. Australian Journal Of
Education, 53(3), 294-305.

27. 
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Futrell, M. (1988). Selecting and compensating
mentor teachers: A win-win scenario. Theory
Into Practice, 27(3), 223-25.
Gall, M. D., Gall, J. P., & Borg, W. R. (2010).
Applying educational research (6th ed). Boston,
MA: Pearson Education.

Whitaker, S. D. (2000). Mentoring beginning
special education teachers and the relationship
to attrition. Exceptional Children, 66(4), 54666.