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What
Should Be the Configuration
of Mentoring Support ?
By Barry Sweeny, 2003
When folks think of mentoring, most often they automatically
choose the "classic" one-to-one approach. That this configuration
IS the classic model would suggest that it may be the most effective
approach. This author agrees that may be the case at times, but
he believes that it is the difficulty of taking time off from day-to-day
work to do mentoring which is the major reason one-to-one mentoring
is the most common format. That at least implies that one-to-0ne
mentoring may not always be the most effective configuration, perhaps
just the most practical.
Given dramatic changes in the expectations,
work, and working structures of professional educators, there are
at least two other configurations which you might consider. If your
school uses instructional teams of any kind, or if your school wants
to move toward a teaming approach to instruction, designing mentoring
as a team structure may make good sense. In fact, a team mentoring
approach of one or another kind may then become the more practical
solution!
What matters most in making this
decision is that the configuration of mentoring should reflect the
goals of the mentoring program, AND the goals of the mentoring program
should reflect the wider school and district improvement agendas.
In other words, mentoring's format should reinforce what the larger
school structures and culture are becoming. Further, mentoring should
be used as a strategy to help prepare novices for successful work
and relationships in that environment, and, as more and more new
teachers are brought onto the staff, to transform the norms to those
of a more collaborative, team-oriented work place.
Of course, even one-to-one mentoring trains novices
and mentors in the skills and dispositions of collaborative planning,
problem-solving, and other forms of educational work. The mentoring
PAIR can also function as a TEAM !
Below are some of the issues you will want to consider
as you plan or revise your program's mentoring configuration.
| One-on-One
Mentoring? > >
> > |
Team
With One Responsible Mentor? |
<
< < < Team Mentoring?
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- The "Classic"and expected way
- Limits support to the strengths of one
mentor
- Requires training to assure development
of the "ideal" mentor who can do it all
- May not address all of the protege's needs
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- The best of BOTH models
- Provides strengths of a diverse team
- Provides clear responsibility for ensuring
the protege's needs are addressed and met
- Requires training for the mentor who is
"responsible"
- Models and develops collaborative team
norms
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- Provides strengths of a diverse team to
help
- Models and develops the desired team collaboration
- May allow protege to "fall through
the cracks" since no one person is
responsible to check if the protege's needs are met
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