Lifelong Learning
Initial Teacher Training
Certificate in Education
Professional Graduate Certificate in Education
(Lifelong Learning)
Mentor Training Pack
2008/9
With thanks to ACER (Association of Colleges in the Eastern Region); John Baglow (Bridgwater College); City Lit; Caroline Harvey (Bath Spa University); Barbara Roche (Weston College); Rosemary Smeeton (Bath Spa University)
Item Page
Introduction 3
MENTOR TRAINING PACK
What will I gain from completing the training? 3
Training Programme Aims and Learning Outcomes 3
Training Programme Outline 4
How does the training programme work? 5
PART ONE – WHAT IS MENTORING? - GETTING STARTED 6
Activity 1 - starting your mentor portfolio and completing 6
the Mentor Record.
Where are you with mentoring now? 6
Activity 2 - Reflections on Mentoring 6
What does 'mentoring' mean? 7
What is mentoring? 8
Is mentoring the same as coaching? 9
Introduction to Dual Professionalism 10
Activity 3 - self assess your own mentoring skills / 11
Professional Development Plan
Why is there such an emphasis at present on developing 11
teachers' specialist area of expertise?
The advantages of mentoring 13
PART 2 - HOW DOES BATH SPA UNIVERSITY 14
MENTORING WORK?
Bath Spa University’s approach to mentoring 14
Trainee Entitlement 15
Activity 4 - how will you support your trainee? 16
The role of the BSU Mentor 16
The role of the BSU Teacher Trainee 17
Activity 5 - preparing to help trainees with
developing their subject 18
Observation guidance 18
Activity 6 - Practicing Observations 20
Activity 7 - Questions you may wish to ask 20
Relevant Learning Outcomes 22
The Specialist Area Review 23
Activity 8 - supporting your trainee with their 25
Specialist Area Review
Evaluation of Mentoring 25
Your Mentor File 26
Activity 9 – completing your Mentor Training File, and 26
getting recognition / being 'signed off'
Bibliography and recommended reading 27
List of Reference Documents 29
SELECTED REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Bath Spa University Mentor Training Pack for 2008/9.
We wish to make sure our teacher trainees get high quality mentoring, so have introduced training and support for mentors to help this happen. This pack provides:
· an outline of the training programme which you must complete to be recognised as a Bath Spa University Mentor within the Lifelong Learning Initial Teacher Training Team
· learning activities to complete, and associated supporting documents.
· appropriate policies and procedures
· a set of all the documents you need either to complete or be aware of as part of your mentoring responsibilities
· a structure which assembles the results of this mentor training into a portfolio which can be submitted by you to achieve BSU recognition.
NOTE ON HARVARD REFERENCING:
SOME OF THE SOURCES USED IN THIS PACK HAVE BEEN INCLUDED FROM OTHER SOURCES. WHERE THEY HAVE NOT BEEN FULLY REFERENCED, WE HAVE DECIDED TO INCLUDE THEM FOR THEIR RELEVANCE, BUT APOLOGISE FOR THE INCOMPLETE REFERENCE.
WHAT WILL I GAIN BY COMPLETING THE TRAINING?
By completing this training, and being 'signed off' by the Course Manager of the partner college where you are mentoring trainee(s), and Bath Spa University, you will become a recognised mentor for the Bath Spa University LL Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programme.
This training will also contribute to your Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
There is some flexibility in how the programme is undertaken and completed, but all mentors must be recognised by Bath Spa University.
TRAINING PROGRAMME AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
TRAINING PROGRAMME AIMS
This Mentoring Training aims to:
1. Consolidate mentoring as a significant aspect of the entitlement for all Lifelong Learning (LL) initial teacher trainees.
2. Provide a useful and developmental continuing professional development and recognition opportunity for all LL ITT mentors.
3. Enhance the LL ITT Partnership's capacity to improve support for trainees' teaching in their specialist area.
4. Assist the development of teaching excellence through the LL ITT awards.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of the mentor training, you will be able to:
1. Describe the key principles and practices of mentoring and relate them to your own experiences of supporting others in your specialist area.
2. List the main components of the teacher trainee entitlement within the Bath Spa LL ITT programme.
3. Observe at least one trainee teaching their specialist area, and provide constructive feedback, advice and guidance with an appropriate specialist area focus.
4. Correctly complete all relevant mentoring documentation and assemble evidence of your competence in a simple portfolio.
5. Assist trainees to engage in critical dialogue on observed teaching and other sessions in relation to their specialist area, and to use this to set work towards and review development targets.
6. Recognise your own continuing professional development needs in relation to mentoring and create an agreed action plan to meet those needs.
- Complete and submit your Mentor Training Portfolio.
- Complete and return an evaluation of the Mentor Training and associated activities to BSU.
- Achieve recognition as a BSU LL ITT Mentor.
TRAINING PROGRAMME OUTLINE
Learning outcome / Subject Matter/Content / Learning ActivityReceive Pack
Set up Mentor Record and Mentoring Portfolio / 1 - Starting your Mentor Portfolio by completing the Mentor Record.
1, 4, 6 / Key aspects of mentoring
- What is it?
- How does it work?
- What is your experience and confidence?
- What is the current context of mentoring?
- Self Assessing your mentoring skills / 2 - Reflections on Mentoring
3 - Self assess your own mentoring skills
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 / BSU Mentoring
- How does it work for Mentors and Trainees?
- Developing mentoring skills and understanding / 4 - How will you support your trainee?
5 - Preparing to help trainees with developing their subject
6 - Practicing Observations
7 - Questions you may wish to ask
8 - supporting your trainee with their Specialist Area Review
8 / Getting signed off and recognition / 9 - Completing your Mentor Training File, and getting recognition / being 'signed off'
HOW DOES THE TRAINING PROGRAMME WORK?
NOTE: YOU MAY ALREADY HAVE PRIOR EXPERIENCE AND / OR QUALIFICATIONS RELATING TO MENTORING WHICH ENABLES YOU TO DEMONSTRATE YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS AGAINST SOME OF THE LEARNING OUTCOMES. IN THIS CASE, YOU CAN PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF THIS EXPERIENCE RATHER THAN COMPLETING ALL THE ACTIVITIES.
PLEASE INDICATE WHERE YOU HAVE DONE THIS IN YOUR PORTFOLIO
1. You work through each section of the training pack, either with others during a face-to-face training session or working independently with the materials.
2. The work you complete assembles into a mini-portfolio, as you work through it.
3. You submit that work in an agreed way for assessment.
4. You get feedback on the work from the allocated member of the University Team.
5. On satisfactory completion, you gain recognition as a BSU LL ITT mentor through the award of a certificate
(PLEASE NOTE: THIS COURSE DOES NOT YET CONTRIBUTE TO A UNIVERSITY AWARD, BUT THERE ARE PLANS TO INTRODUCE SUCH AN AWARD).
PART ONE – WHAT IS MENTORING?
GETTING STARTED
Scan through the format and style of the Training Pack so you get a feel for where the different components are, before you start working through it.
Make sure you are clear where you should put completed activities (i.e. in the ‘Mentoring Portfolio’ Section).
PLEASE NOTE: THE RECORDS / RESULTS OF ALL ACTIVITIES ARE IN SEQUENCE AT THE END OF THIS FILE
ACTIVITY 1 - STARTING YOUR MENTOR PORTFOLIO BY
COMPLETING THE MENTOR RECORD AND SETTING UP THE MENTOR PORTFOLIO
Place the Index/Checklist at the front of the Mentor Portfolio, and the other Portfolio documents behind it.
Then complete the Mentor Record, make a copy, and place behind the Index/Checklist at the start of your Mentor Portfolio.
Pass on another copy of the Mentor Record to the LL ITT Course Manager at the college you are mentoring with, i.e.:
John Baglow at Bridgwater College
Caroline Harvey at Norton Radstock College
Barbara Roche at Weston College
Tish Cooney at Wiltshire College
WHERE ARE YOU WITH MENTORING NOW?
Everyone will come to mentoring from a different starting point in terms of experience. For some mentors it may be the first time they have supported someone in this way, and for others they may have worked with many teachers, trainers or tutors as mentors before. You may have given someone advice and support, but not seen it as mentoring. You may have observed teaching but not seen it as mentoring. You may have been a general staff mentor, but not a subject specialist mentor. The next activity will provide an opportunity to reflect on what has brought you to be a mentor now, and how you see mentoring.
ACTIVITY 2 - REFLECTIONS ON MENTORING
Please think about these questions, write your answers below, and discuss them with at least one other mentor.
How long have you been involved in work which you would describe as mentoring?
What aspects of the work have you found particularly challenging or rewarding?
How do you think you have helped those you have mentored?
How would you define mentoring?
WHAT DOES 'MENTORING' MEAN?Please read this section
The origins of the word ‘mentor’ go back to the Greek epic poem The Odyssey. According to the myth, when Odysseus went away to fight, he left his son, Telemachus, in the care of a friend named ‘Mentor’. Mentor was also a tutor to Telemachus. The name ‘mentor’ has, therefore, become synonymous with a wise and supportive advisor. A close reading of the myth reveals the relationship between Telemachus and Mentor to be of mutual benefit, with some versions of the myth even reporting Telemachus saving Mentor’s life.
Definitions of mentoring from other sources include:
Mentoring is the "deliberate pairing of a more skilled or experienced person with a lesser skilled or experienced one, with the agreed-upon goal of having the lesser skilled person grow and develop."
(Murray 2001)
Mentoring means guiding and supporting the trainee to ease through difficult transitions; it is about smoothing the way, enabling, reassuring as well as directing, managing and instructing. It should unblock the ways to change by building self-confidence, self-esteem and a readiness to act as well as to engage in on-going constructive interpersonal relationships. (Fletcher 2000: iii)
‘the focus (of mentoring) is to identify the key characteristics of an excellent teacher in further education and second, to suggest how such excellent teachers can encourage others towards excellence.’ (AoC / FENTO 2001)
Take a look at the following model of mentoring, and see what you think of it.
WHAT IS MENTORING?MENTORING RELATIONSHIP
Role model Nurturer Care giver
FUNCTIONS OF MENTORING
Teach Sponsor Encourage Counsel Befriend
model protect affirm listen accept
inform support inspire probe relate
confirm promote challenge advise clarify
question
MENTORING ACTIVITIES
Demonstration sessions Observations and feedback Support meetings
This diagram, adapted from Kerry and Mayes (1995), proposes that there are three ‘mentoring dispositions’ (shown on the edge of the diagram) which are essential to effective mentoring. They are:
1. Opening Ourselves
Mentors must be prepared to ‘open’ themselves to the mentee by sharing their reasoning and decision processes with them.
2. Leading Incrementally
Mentors should match the support they give step-by-step with the mentee’s developing knowledge and understanding, thereby leading them incrementally forward.
3. Expressing Care and Concern
Mentors should be able to express care and concern, demonstrating empathy for the mentee’s situation.
This model also outlines three basic components to mentoring (shown inside the diagram):
· The Mentoring Relationship, where the mentee views the mentor as a role model and where the mentor nurtures and cares for the mentee.
· Functions of Mentoring which are to teach, sponsor, encourage, counsel and befriend, and which can be further broken down into their related behaviours (examples are shown under the functions in the circle)
· Mentoring Activities. According to this model, the behaviours and ‘functions’ of a mentor all take place through three key mentoring activities:
- demonstration lessons
- observation and feedback
- support meetings.
IS MENTORING THE SAME AS COACHING?
Please read this section
With the introduction of Subject Coaches by the DFES, there exists some confusion regarding the difference between coaches and mentors. One of the reasons these two roles are confused is that effective mentors and coaches have very similar skills and qualities and can enter into very similar activities.
The difference, in our educational context, lies in the purpose. Subject coaches are intended to be part of a teacher’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD), helping individuals to look at issues surrounding teaching and learning. Mentoring is about helping individuals at specific stages of their development, for example during initial teacher training and during periods of change such as the move to a new job within the organisation. The focus of mentoring is, therefore, not just about teaching and learning, but also about induction and orientation. In this sense, coaching is just one element of the mentoring process.
The relationship between Mentoring and Coaching
INTRODUCTION TO DUAL PROFESSIONALISM
Please read this
Developing Professionalism and Professional Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes in the Learning and Skills Sector is an interesting and more complex subject than in other educational contexts e.g. Schools. A helpful way of describing this is the concept of 'dual professionalism', which should help you to understand some of the challenges and issues your mentees are facing, and help you develop your own professional identity as a mentor.
As Jocelyn Robson (1998) identifies:
'In moving from one occupational area (in industry or commerce) to another (education & training) most teachers retain strong allegiances to their first occupational identity… this identity is what gives them credibility (as well as knowledge & skill) … the technical teacher (initially) appears to see him or herself as chiefly the secretary, welder, fashion designer or surveyor… In making the transition from one workplace to another the mature but novice teacher can experience stress of various kinds, more is involved than the simple acquisition of new skills & knowledge (in education).