Master of Arts in Education Major in School Administration
Vol. 2 No. 1, January - March 2026 · pages 180–186
Te achers need sustained, responsive, a n d school-based professional support to improve instructional competence, classroom management, assessment practices, professional growth, workload management, and personal well-being. This study developed a Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program for teachers of North Central Elementary School. Specifically, it determined the profile of teacher-respondents in terms of age, sex, civil status, highest educational attainment, length of teaching experience, and grade-level assignment; identified their mentoring and coaching needs; examined the challenges they encountered in professional practice; developed a holistic mentoring and coaching program based on the findings; and validated the proposed program in terms of objectives, content, strategies and activities, usefulness, and feasibility. The study employed a descriptive-developmental research design. The respondents were eight teachers from North Central Elementary School, selected through a total population sampling method to ensure the program reflected the actual needs of the entire teaching force. Data were gathered using a researcher-developed questionnaire checklist and a separate validation checklist, both of which were subjected to expert validation. Frequency counts, percentages, weighted means, and composite means were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that teachers had high to very high mentoring and coaching needs across major dimensions, particularly instructional competence, classroom management, assessment practices, professional growth, and personal and interpersonal well-being. Teachers also encountered challenges related to lesson delivery, learner behavior, diverse learners, assessment demands, workload pressures, stress, and collaboration. The developed Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program was found to be highly valid, relevant, useful, and feasible for implementation. The study concluded that a school-based holistic mentoring and coaching program can strengthen teacher support systems and promote continuous professional growth.
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Te achers occupy a central role i n improving educational quality because classroom learning depends greatly on how they design instruction, manage learner behavior, respond to diversity, assess progress, and sustain meaningful engagement. In contemporary schools, teacher effectiveness is no longer understood solely as mastery of subject matter or lesson delivery; it also includes reflective practice, professional collaboration, emotional resilience, learner-centered decision-making, and the ability to adapt to changing educational demands. The uploaded study emphasizes that teachers need sustained support systems that help them grow professionally and personally, particularly as classrooms become more complex and learner needs become more diverse.
Professional development has therefore become a strategic concern in school improvement. The OECD describes teacher professional learning as a career-long process that includes formal training, seminars, online learning, mentoring, supervision, and other forms of support that help teachers improve practice over time. This perspective is relevant to North Central Elementary School because teacher growth should not depend only on occasional seminars or compliance-based training. Instead, professional learning should be continuous, school-based, contextualized, and responsive to the actual instructional and personal challenges teachers face.
Mentoring and coaching are especially important because they bring professional learning closer to classroom practice. Mentoring generally provides guidance, encouragement, and career-related support from more experienced educators, while coaching focuses more directly on improving specific aspects of teaching through observation, feedback, modeling, reflection, and targeted assistance. The OECD's recent work on teacher professional learning emphasizes that mentorship, coaching, and support during real classroom practice are essential in helping teachers develop and sustain effective teaching. In the present study, these ideas support the development of a holistic mentoring and coaching program that addresses not only instructional competence but also classroom management, assessment practices, professional growth, workload concerns, collaboration, and well-being.
The Philippine basic education system also provides strong policy support for school-based teacher development. DepEd Order No. 35, s. 2016 institutionalizes the Learning Action Cell as a school-based continuing professional development strategy and describes it as a professional learning community intended to improve teacher practice and learner achievement. Similarly, DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017 establishes the Philippine Professional Standards for Te achers a s t h e basis f o r teacher learning a n d developme nt programs, ensuring that teachers are equipped with the competencies needed to improve student learning outcomes.
These policies justify the need for a structured mentoring and coaching program that translates professional standards into practical, school-level support. A holistic mentoring and coaching program is necessary because teacher development is multidimensional. Teachers do not only need assistance with lesson planning and instructional delivery; they also need support with managing learner behavior, addressing differentiated needs, coping with workload pressure, communicating with colleagues, and maintaining professional motivation. UNESCO's work on education in 2025 emphasized the need to protect learning, support teachers and learners, and keep education central to global development priorities.
UNESCO also highlights the importance of collaboration, mentorship, and school leadership in strengthening education quality and teacher retention. These points support the study's argument that mentoring and coaching should treat teachers as whole professionals, with their instructional, emotional, social, and professional needs interconnected. Te acher well-being is likewise an important concern in developing a holistic program. The uploaded thesis discusses that teaching involves stress, workload demands, shifting policies, diverse learner needs, and professional relationships that influence both morale and performance.
UNESCO-supported work on teacher well-being describes well-being as a foundation for retention, classroom effectiveness, and wider school impact, especially among novice teachers and those working in demanding contexts. Thus, a mentoring and coaching program that focuses only on technical teaching skills may fail to address the deeper conditions that affect teacher effectiveness. A more responsive approach should include reflective dialogue, emotional support, collegial collaboration, professional identity formation, and practical strategies for coping with classroom and workload pressures. The local context of North Central Elementary School strengthens the need for this study.
While national policies and professional standards provide broad expectations, each school has its own teacher profile, instructional concerns, classroom management issues, assessment challenges, and professional support needs. The uploaded study sought to determine the profile of teachers, identify their mentoring and coaching needs, examine the challenges they encountered, develop a holistic mentoring and coaching program, and validate the proposed program in terms of objectives, content, strategies, and activities, usefulness, and feasibility. This local grounding is important because an effective program must be based on actual school-level evidence rather than generic professional development assumptions.
Accordingly, the present study developed a Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program for teachers of North Central Elementary School. It employed a descriptive-developmental approach to describe teachers' needs and challenges and to develop a validated program to guide school-based teacher support. By focusing on the overall professional development of teachers, the study contributes to improving instructional practice, classroom management, assessment, collaboration, well-being, and sustained professional growth. Ultimately, the study positions mentoring and coaching as essential school-based mechanisms for strengthening teacher competence and improving the quality of teaching and learning. 5 Method
The study employed a descriptive-developmental research design to develop a Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program for teachers of North Central Elementary School. The descriptive component was used to determine the profile of the teacher-respondents, identify their mentoring and coaching needs, and examine the challenges they encountered in relation to instructional competence, classroom management, assessment practices, professional growth, workload concerns, collaboration, and personal and interpersonal well-being. The developmental component was applied in designing a school-based mentoring and coaching program grounded in teachers' actual needs and challenges.
After the proposed program was developed, it was validated against objectives, content, strategies, activities, usefulness, and feasibility. This design was appropriate because the study did not merely describe existing conditions but also produced a practical output intended to improve teacher support and professional development. Through this approach, the study generated evidence-based inputs for creating a responsive, holistic, and context-specific mentoring and coaching program that may strengthen teacher competence, well-being, collaboration, and continuous professional growth. 2.2 Participants The study consisted of eight teachers from North Central Elementary School, the research locale where the proposed Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program was intended to be developed and implemented.
Total population sampling was employed because the number of teachers in the school was manageable and because the study aimed to capture the needs, challenges, and professional realities of the entire teaching force. The respondents provided data on their profile, mentoring and coaching needs, and challenges encountered in professional practice, particularly in relation to instructional competence, classroom management, assessment practices, professional growth, workload concerns, collaboration, and personal and interpersonal well-being. Their responses served as the primary basis for designing a school-based program that was grounded in actual school conditions rather than generalized assumptions about teacher development.
This participant group was appropriate because the study aimed to develop a context-specific intervention that directly addressed teachers' professional support needs at North Central Elementary School. 2.3 Instrumentation The study used a researcher-developed questionnaire checklist as the primary instrument for collecting data to develop the Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program for teachers at North Central Elementary School. The instrument was designed to align with the study's objectives and was organized into three major parts. The first part gathered the respondents' profiles, including age, sex, civil status, highest educational attainment, length of teaching experience, and grade- level assignment.
The second part identified the mentoring and coaching needs of teachers regarding instructional competence, classroom management, assessment practices, professional growth, collaboration, workload concerns, and personal and interpersonal well-being. The third part identified the challenges teachers face in their professional practice, particularly those that could be addressed through a holistic mentoring and coaching program. In addition, a separate validation checklist was prepared to evaluate the developed program against its objectives, content, strategies, activities, usefulness, and feasibility. The instruments underwent expert validation to ensure clarity, relevance, and alignment with the study's objectives.
Necessary revisions were made based on the comments and suggestions of the validators before the questionnaire was administered to all eight teacher-respondents. Using these instruments, the study generated reliable, school-based data that served as the foundation for designing and validating the proposed mentoring and coaching program. 2.4 Data Analysis The data gathered from the researcher-made questionnaire checklist and validation checklist were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools aligned with the study's objectives. Frequency counts and percentages were used to summarize the profile of the teacher-respondents by age, sex, civil status, highest educational attainment, length of teaching experience, and grade-level assignment.
Weighted means were computed to determine the extent of teachers' mentoring and coaching needs across key dimensions, including instructional competence, classroom management, assessment practices, professional growth and development, collaboration, workload concerns, and personal and interpersonal well-being. The same procedure was used to analyze the challenges teachers face in their professional practice. Composite means were used to determine the overall level of need and the general extent of challenges across the identified dimensions. To validate the developed Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program, weighted and composite means were also used to evaluate the program across objectives, content, strategies, and activities, usefulness, and feasibility.
Through these statistical procedures, the study generated clear, organized evidence that served as the basis for developing and validating a responsive, school-based mentoring and coaching program for teachers at North Central Elementary School.
The results showed that the teacher-respondents of North Central Elementary School came from varied personal and professional backgrounds. The study involved eight teachers, and a total population sampling was used to include the entire teaching force of the school. In terms of profile, the respondents differed in age, sex, civil status, educational attainment, length of teaching experience, and grade-level assignment. Most respondents were female, and the group included teachers from different age brackets and teaching experience levels. This profile indicated that the proposed mentoring and coaching program needed to be responsive to teachers at different career stages, grade-level assignments, and professional development needs.
The findings further revealed that teachers had high to very high mentoring and coaching needs across major areas of professional practice. These needs included instructional competence, classroom management, assessment practices, professional growth and development, workload concerns, collaboration, and personal and interpersonal well-being. The results suggest that teachers require support not only in technical teaching skills but also in broader areas affecting their effectiveness and well-being. This finding confirmed the need for a holistic mentoring and coaching program that would address interconnected professional, instructional, relational, and personal dimensions of teacher growth.
In terms of challenges, the teachers experienced the identified difficulties to a great extent, with an overall composite mean of 3.38. Among the five challenge areas, classroom management had the highest sub-composite mean of 3.52, followed by instructional challenges (3.44), professional and work-related challenges (3.38), assessment and evaluation challenges (3.28), and personal and interpersonal challenges (3.27). The highest-rated specific challenge was managing learner behavior and discipline problems, with a weighted mean of 3.75. Other major concerns included difficulty in addressing the needs of diverse learners, balancing teaching duties and administrative tasks, maintaining classroom order and learner engagement, and managing workload and time effectively.
Based on these findings, the study developed a Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program for North Central Elementary School. The program was designed to respond to the identified needs and challenges of teachers, particularly in instructional competence, classroom management, assessment practices, professional growth, workload management, and personal and interpersonal well-being. The results justified the need for a school-based intervention that was not limited to lesson delivery or compliance-based professional development, but one that provided sustained support for teachers' competence, confidence, collaboration, reflective practice, and overall professional growth.
The validation results showed that the developed Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program was highly valid, with an overall composite mean of 3.78. Validators found the program clear in its purpose, relevant in its content, appropriate in its strategies and activities, useful for addressing teachers' needs, and feasible for implementation in the school setting. The highest-rated indicators were the program's usefulness in addressing mentoring and coaching needs and its contribution to teachers' personal and professional growth, both with weighted means of 4.00. The lowest-rated indicator was the manageability of program activities in terms of time and resources, with a mean of 3.50, yet it was still considered highly valid.
Overall, the findings confirmed that the proposed program was acceptable, relevant, practical, and suitable for implementation at North Central Elementary School.
The study's findings confirm the need for a school-based Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program for North Central Elementary School teachers. The results showed that teachers needed support across several interconnected areas, particularly instructional competence, classroom management, assessment practices, professional growth, workload management, collaboration, and personal and interpersonal well-being. This finding supports the view that teacher development should not be limited to technical classroom skills alone but should also address the broader professional and human dimensions of teaching. The OECD describes teacher professional learning as a career-long process that should support teachers from the beginning of their careers through sustained development, mentorship, coaching, collaboration, and reflective practice.
Thus, the present findings are consistent with the idea that effective teacher support must be continuous, contextualized, and embedded in actual school practice. The high level of need in instructional competence and classroom management suggests that teachers require practical guidance in lesson delivery, learner engagement, classroom order, and differentiated instruction. This is supported by DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017, which institutionalizes the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers and emphasizes content knowledge, pedagogy, learning environment, learner diversity, curriculum planning, assessment, and professional growth as essential domains of teacher quality.
Since the study found that teachers needed mentoring and coaching in areas directly aligned with these professional standards, the proposed program is strongly justified as a mechanism for translating national teacher standards into school-based practice. The challenges teachers face further underscore the need for the proposed program. The study found that teachers experienced significant difficulties, particularly in classroom management, instructional concerns, professional and work-related demands, assessment and evaluation, and personal and interpersonal challenges. Classroom management had the highest sub-composite mean, and managing learner behavior and discipline problems was the highest-rated specific challenge.
These results indicate that teachers require support not only in planning and delivering lessons but also in sustaining classroom order, responding to diverse learners, managing workload, and maintaining professional well-being. The study itself explains that these concerns are exactly the types of issues that require sustained, responsive, and collaborative school-based support. The development of the Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program was therefore appropriate because it was grounded in teachers' actual needs and challenges rather than imposed as a generic professional development activity. The use of total population sampling strengthened the relevance of the findings by including all eight teachers at North Central Elementary School, ensuring that the proposed intervention reflected the realities of the entire teaching force.
This approach is consistent with DepEd Order No. 35, s. 2016, which identifies the Learning Action Cell as a school-based continuing professional development strategy and as a professional learning community intended to improve teacher practice and learner achievement. The validation results also support the acceptability and practicality of the proposed program. The developed Holistic Mentoring and Coaching Program was found highly valid in terms of objectives, content, strategies, activities, usefulness, and feasibility. This indicates that the program was considered relevant, appropriate, and suitable for possible implementation at North Central Elementary School.
The study concluded that a school-based holistic mentoring and coaching program is essential in strengthening teacher support systems and promoting continuous professional growth. UNESCO's education work likewise emphasizes the importance of supporting teachers and strengthening professional development as part of quality education efforts, while its work on teacher well-being recognizes that teachers' mental health, professional development, self-efficacy, and collective efficacy are important factors in sustaining effective teaching. Overall, the findings justify the implementation of a holistic, collaborative, and context-responsive mentoring and coaching program that strengthens teacher competence, confidence, collaboration, well-being, and professional growth.
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