Co-author of the Cambridge whitepaper ‘Effective professional development: Principles and best practice’, Gabriel Diaz Maggioli, talks about the best practices he has exemplified recently, why mentoring is important and what the qualities of a good mentor are. Mentoring is a mindset – every teacher has an established mental relationship with their peers.
So what is mentoring?
Gabriel explains that mentoring is an adhoc process where; “two individuals self select each other to support their professional development”. If someone is a new starter they can be assigned a mentor and that person can “capitalise on the expertise” of the mentor who has been there a lot longer.
It is a relationship in which you can feel free to discuss areas of development and trust the mentor without being judged. The mentor has no evaluative power. It is a two way process, both parties gain awareness of how they do things in a certain way.
What are the key qualities of a mentor?
- Openess, with no agenda
- Empathy; someone who can set aside their own positioning and put themselves in the newcomer’s shoes
- Trustworthy; what is said stays in the mentoring space, the newcomer can feel free to make mistakes and learn from them and move on
- Objective; provide objective feedback which is informative.
Read more about Collaborative practice and professional development.