Features of an Academic Mentor, the Modern Ways of Mentoring - Essay Example

Mentoring Introduction The literature present in the study of Education describesmentoring as a fundamental input required for an unbeaten academic career. Mentoring is conventionally demonstrated as a top down, one-to-one association involving support of a senior member of faculty for the career expansion of a fresh or early-career staff member, and huge amount of research for development of a faculty and mentoring programs have been developed to go well with this conventional definition. There are lots of ways in which people define Mentoring. However, in simplest words, Mentoring is the transfer of knowledge, abilities and understanding from an individual to another. (Pinnington, 2004, 01) Features of an Academic Mentor An academic mentor may occupy a formal or an informal way of mentoring. It may range from extremely complicated or procedure-based, to a simple one. However, in any case, the type of this affiliation is not as significant as it outcome that is achieved by the end of mentoring. Present generations or groups flourish on the grounds developed by others who have experienced sooner than us. (Karcher, 120) An academic mentor’s job is to purely transfer the knowledge and information that they have. (Fletcher, 65) They convey lessons on the skill and knowledge of existence. By doing so, they facilitate others in gaining fundamental knowledge more speedily, and often more efficiently, than anyone achieves from their secondary school. Researchers also believe that in case of attitude problems with the learners, the most effectual way to help learners is to teach them new behaviour or by giving them various types of rewards and sanctions as in Jay’s case. The Modern ways of Mentoring In several aspects, modern day relationships of mentoring are different from the past. In old times, the main objective of mentoring was just one-way transfer of extensive amount of information and awareness. (Rowley, 12) The mentee used to be just a recipient and most of the times had little control or authority in this relationship. Their relationship used to last for certain days or months, and one mentee was only allowed to have one mentor. Moreover, Mentoring used to happen on only face-to-face basis. These days most of the mentoring relationships concentrate more on just learning. Unlike past, learner-based mentoring has proved to be more vital and two-way association involving significant expression and complete participation of both the partners. (Murrell, 115) These days mentor acts as a facilitator and the mentee behaves as a practical and equivalent partner, who facilitates the association and set its objectives. (McCann, 32) Not just that, but mentee may have more than a single mentor. Their interaction may occur face-to-face, or via e-mail, telephone or any other means of communication. Barriers to Mentoring This has been noticed that educational institutes are not willing to support mentoring, either one-on-one or little groups. Majority of the schools conduct number of extracurricular activities like swimming, baseball, football or soccer etc., there is no school with an extracurricular lab for computer having a computer coach to maintain it. The reactions towards various attempts to introduce mentoring for students of high schools have been spoilt with everything from lack of sympathy to opposition. An individual needs to have a teaching certificate in order to join a school as a teacher and not some new ideas or motivation. (Stanulis, 8) Another major barrier that female mentors come across everyday is gender barrier. From both physiological and social point of view female mentors are highly discouraged by the society. Moreover, racial discrimination has made the situation even worse since individuals belonging to the ethnic minority background are also discouraged by some group of schools. Selection of Mentors School districts with effective mentor programs actively seek accomplished veteran staff members to serve as mentors. (Villani, 1)Several stakeholders should discuss and contribute to the construction of a profile of the kind of person who would serve as a mentor. Several sources suggest the kind of qualities to look for in a mentor. (Lipton, 01) The mentor selection should result from deliberation among school leaders who know the applicants well. The following list of qualifications offers a sample profile of the typical mentor: * demonstrated record as an exemplary teacher * strong communications skills * trustworthy and sensitive to obligations about confidentiality * experienced with a similar teaching assignment * easily accessible * responsible * empathic * supportive * open * resourceful It is useful not only for a school district to identify a list of essential criteria for selection, but also to agree on a process for negotiating compromises when all of the criteria cannot be met. Matching Mentors with Protégés Perhaps the most critical element in a mentor program is making the appropriate match between mentor and protégé. It is crucial both to have reasonable selection criteria and to honor the selection criteria as closely as possible. When a first-year teacher was interviewed at a college, she characterized her experience with a mentor in this way: "My mentor did not want to be a mentor. She dislikes me; I dislike her. I wanted to be with another teacher with whom I have more in common, and a good teacher" (McCann, Johannessen, and Ricca, 32). Obviously, for her, the mentoring arrangement was a disaster, and she would have preferred to have selected her own mentor. The problem was that the mentor was not selected with any care. In this case, the first person who stepped up to collect the mentor stipend was assigned to work with her. While informal mentoring relationships will evolve, there are some obvious dangers in encouraging new teachers to select their own mentors. First, if teachers are new to a school, it is difficult for them to know the veteran colleagues well enough initially to be able to make judgments about the appropriate fit. As time goes on, teachers will naturally gravitate toward certain colleagues and select their mentors and role models. In addition, when self-selection is an element of a formal program, there is the danger that the same few experienced teachers will be selected time and again and will have to bear the bulk of the mentoring responsibilities. This can be well imagined that sometimes the mentor assignment is not a good match. The quality of the match should be apparent early in the mentoring process so that adjustments can be made. Communicating Effectively It is important to inform mentors and protégés as early as possible about their assignments, and to encourage early and frequent communications between mentors and protégés. In addition, if staff members apply to be a mentor and are never assigned, it is reasonable for them to want to know why they were denied the opportunity to mentor. In those cases when a supervisor has serious reservations about assigning a veteran staff member as a mentor because the supervisor judges that the staff member has less than an exemplary teaching record, the supervisor should meet with the applicant to identify areas for growth and set goals for improvement. Training and Support Generally, a school district cannot rely on enthusiastic helpers to operate intuitively to guide their mentor activities. (Zachary, 4) For mentoring to have the best effect, the leadership in a school district should provide standard training that aligns with the research about common concerns among beginning teachers and emphasizes a coaching model for the work that mentors will do with protégés. Some school districts have found it extremely helpful to provide a calendar of mentor/protégé activities to help mentors to anticipate critical topics and significant school events. It is also helpful to have follow-up meetings for the mentors during the school year. The group meetings help to reassure the mentors that they were doing the right things. Mentors often find it is useful to hear stories and suggestions from others. In some ways, the meeting of mentors provides a support system in that mentors can hear from each other about familiar challenges and can contribute to problem solving together. Observations and Meetings For most mentors and protégés, the opportunities for observations are useful, although sometimes difficult to schedule. Scheduled observations, with the accompanying planning and debriefing meetings, support the effort to influence new teachers to be more reflective. (Macrina, 18) The observations prove useful for both the protégés and the mentors. Protégés can gain valuable feedback about plans for instruction and about the actual execution of lessons. The observations need to be purposeful, allowing for the protégé to direct the focus for the observation and to tie the observation to particular professional goals. Certainly it is valuable for the protégé to observe the mentor and engage in reflective conversation about a lesson plan and the episode-by-episode decisions of the mentor who facilitated the lesson. Regular meetings between protégés and mentors are very helpful and are at the core of the relationship. This is one reason it is important to have mentors who are accessible to their protégés. Regular meetings allow the partners to build rapport, which in turn cultivates the new teachers confidence. Documentation and Reflection While the obligation to keep meeting logs and written reflections can feel tedious, the documentation might be required in particular states as part of the recognition of a school districts mentor program as part of a process that moves certified staff along tiers of certification. (Boehle, 35) Too much emphasis on tedious paperwork, however, can discourage the partners and interfere with the more important work of coaching and supporting. If documentation is necessary, it should be kept to a minimum and take a form that protects the confidentiality of sensitive reflective statements. Ongoing Evaluation The evaluation of a mentor program is valuable in finding direction for improvement. The use of written reflections and surveys for mentors and protégés provides summative data to allow organizers to judge if anecdotal reports of triumphs and concerns are representative examples or rare exceptions. It is also valuable to devise a formative assessment procedure so that new teachers can alert a mentor program organizer when the mentor arrangement is not functioning effectively, e.g., the mentor is not available to meet, the mentor is assuming an evaluator role, the mentor is generally not supportive, etc. (Aydin, 212) The assessment would have to allow the new teacher to seek help without further compromising the mentor-protégé relationship. This is a tricky action to accomplish and requires trust in organizers or facilitators, and the promise of discretely intervening to correct situations that are less than ideal. The initiation, organization, and management of a mentor program will be complicated, and the brief outline above highlights a few key considerations. In the end, at the center of a mentor program are people who are eager to help their colleagues and who have developed some skills for coaching others as they encounter challenges and as they grow as professionals. Beyond this brief review, teachers who are assuming leadership for a mentor program should look to the substantial body of literature about mentoring and look at any exemplary mentor program that they can identify. Hence it is urged that careful preparation for the procedures and the training is needed because instances have been seen when there was no mentoring at all would have been better than the misguided mentoring that some beginning teachers have experienced. References Aydin. E, (2009) Journal of Instructional Psychology. Mobile; Psychology Press, vol. 2. p. 212 Boehle. S (2009) ‘Millennial Mentors’Training. Vol. 5 Minneapolis; p. 35 Fletcher. Sarah (2000) ‘Mentoring in Schools’ Vol. 1, Routledge, pg 60-68 Karcher. M (2009) Professional School Counseling. Vol. 35, Alexandria: p. 120 Lipton, Laura, and Bruce Wellman. (2002) Mentoring Matters: A Practical Guide to Learning Focused Relationships. Sherman, CT: Vol. 16, Mira Via, pg 1 Macrina. M, Hoover. D, Becker. C (2009) The Challenge of Working with Dual Language Learners: Three Perspectives: Supervisor, Mentor, and Teacher, Vol. 6 Young Children, p. 18 McCann, Thomas M., Larry R. Johannessen, and Bernard Ricca. (2005) "Responding to New Teachers Concerns." Vol. 12, Educational Leadership: 29-45. Print. Murrell. A. J, Corsby. F.J, Ely. R.J, (1999) ‘Mentoring Dilemmas with Multi-cultural Organizations’ , Psychology Press, Vol. 5 pg 100- 114 Pinnington, D, (2004) ‘Mentoring, Its Time Has Come Again’. Pg 01 (Website) Rowley, James B. (1999) The Good Mentor." Vol. 34, Educational Leadership’ pg 10-31. Stanulis. R. N, Ames. K. T (2009) ‘The Professional Educator’. Vol. 6 Auburn: Spring, p. 8 Supporting Beginning English Teachers (2005) Research and Implications for Teacher Induction. Vol 8, Urbana: NCTE. Villani, Susan. (2001) Mentoring Programs for New Teachers. Thousand Oaks: Vol 12, Corwin, pg 01 Zachary. L, Fischler. L (2010) ‘Those Who Lead, Mentor’ Vol. 8, Alexendria, p.04 Read More