ABSTRACT
Effective mentor–mentee discussions form the basis of a strong mentor–mentee relationship and provide waypoints to support a beginning teacher’s developmental journey of becoming an effective teacher. Therefore, mentors need to ensure that these discussions do not only rely on lesson-debriefs on a lesson taught by the beginning teacher and/or discussions on some topics needed to be taught in the upcoming lessons. One way of establishing effective discussions is by recounting mentors own experiences and listening to a beginning teacher’s real-life experiences as scenarios or stories. It is important that a mentor acknowledges that becoming a teacher is an emotional business. Therefore, they need to maintain a positive mentor–mentee relationship. Modelling best practices is one of the essential aspects of a mentor, as a beginning teacher tends to follow in their mentor’s footsteps to develop their planning and teaching practices. So, a science mentor should model themselves as a scientific activist promoting scientific literacy for all the pupils.
