Mentoring as Professional Development: ‘Growth for Both’ Mentor and Mentee

Source: Professional Development in Education, Volume 39, Issue 5, 2013, pages 771-783

The purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate professional development for mentors as a result of the mentoring process.

Data were collected through surveys completed by 101 mentor teachers on a five-part Likert scale and interviews with 10 experienced mentors.

Survey data showed that although mentoring of pedagogical knowledge was variable, mentoring pedagogical knowledge practices occurs with the majority of mentors, which requires mentors to evaluate and articulate teaching practices.
Qualitative data showed that mentoring acted as professional development and led towards enhancing communication skills, developing leadership roles (problem-solving and building capacity) and advancing pedagogical knowledge.

The authors argue that providing professional development to teachers on mentoring can help to build capacity in two ways: quality mentoring of preservice teachers through explicit mentoring practices, and reflecting and deconstructing teaching practices for mentors’ own pedagogical advancements.