1. General Description on research questions In the current announcement we are going to present the results of a small-scale pilot research, which has been conducted among elementary school consulters in Greece, in terms to the European program ΤΙSSNTE (“Teacher Induction: Supporting the Supporters of Novice Teachers in Europe”). The specific European program, in which 21 educational institutions from 12 different countries are participating, has as its main goal the production of an educational material for supporting mentors in their difficult duty of guiding and encouraging the novice elementary school teachers. The crucial role of mentors for teacher’s education and their professional development has been approved as a matter of continuing scientific interest.( Calderhead& Shorrock 1997, McIntyre 1997, Cohen 1995,) In order to produce such a proper educational material, a questionnaire has been developed as a kind of a diagnostic tool with the help of which, in a pilot level, has been done one kind of exploration of the needs mentors have. In the Greek educational reality school consulters are considered to be school-teacher’s mentors, and for this reason we addressed to them.(Giokarinis 2000, Raptis&Vitsilaki 2007)

2. Methodology 2.1 Participants The survey conducted among 13 elementary school consulters, 7 male and 6 female. The sample consists of the 60% from 22 elementary school consulters in the region of Thessaloniki, the second larger city in Greece. 2.2 The questionnaire. In order to gather information about the needs mentors have in their everyday educational practice, a questionnaire, common for the 21 institutions participating in the research, was developed and translated in the local languages. The questionnaire consists of 47 questions separated in three sectors. The first sector refers to their personal details, the second sector refers to the mentors’ role and responsibilities and the third sector refers to the mentor’s needs support and development.

From the answers given, it is clear that almost all school consulters regard that they need to develop their knowledge and skills. That is explained easily, if we think a) that their professional efficiency equals the qualifications, mostly of academic nature, and b) that after their selection there is no systematic training and support (Pasiardis 2004,) From this perspective, it is regarded highly typical that they need to develop all this knowledge and skills that can be categorized according to our research in three types: 1. The first type refers to the core of the school consulters’ work as mentors, that is the critical analysis of practices followed by the novice teachers, and by the school consulters. 2. A second category is related to the communicative dimension. 3. Finally, a third category is related to the organizational issues of the school consulters’ task.