Mentoring and Coaching

 

                                                      (Holloway, 2001)

I am not a teacher. But, I have been so motivated to be a teacher since I came to the U.S. seven years ago. After reading many articles about mentoring and coaching, I feel the education system is very different between China and the U.S. I feel so happy to have a peek at the education system through the degree program to get in touch with the advanced education ideology. In China, there is a little bit of mentoring to new teachers. Most of the time, the new teachers need to develop themselves to tailor themselves to a career with many years of experience. 

To be a teacher, there is a good system to prepare a good teacher, through a teacher certificate program, student teaching by tutoring, and coaching by peers. I remember a teacher said last semester that teaching is the art of arts. I can’t agree anymore. It’s a career of whole life learning and improving, whole heart investing job, with long-term influence even with students’ generations. So teaching is hard for anyone.

By mentoring, a new teacher can get effective mentoring, including highly trained mentors, a focus on content, and allocated time for mentoring. These three elements help the new teacher to get success in the classroom with specific background, strengths, and needs (Grossman and David, 2012). High-quality mentors mean mentors can develop specific skills, such as working relationships with adults, determining the strengths and needs of a new teacher, setting meaningful goals, and providing constructive feedback on instruction for new teachers. 

Mentoring also includes a focus on both content and emotional support. By matching with trained mentors knowledgeable about their subject matters, new teachers can be provided emotional support and coaching on classroom management. Trained mentors are so important in mentoring. 

Administrative support and other school factors can make big difference for new teachers, such as frequent meetings with new teachers and mentors, external network support, and effective discipline policies to level down the worries about student behavior. Schools can build up high-quality mentoring programs, encouraging school administrators to provide strong support for mentoring programs. 

Not every experienced teacher can be a mentor. Mentors need training to support the novice teacher. The quality of a mentoring program can be improved by an appropriate training for the mentor’s expanded teaching role. It is crucially important that a mentor’s knowledge of how to support new teachers and skill at providing guidance (Holloway, 2001). 

References:

Carr, J.F., Herman, N., Harris, D.E. (2005). Creating Dynamic Schools Through Mentoring, Coaching, and Collaboration. ASCD.

Grossman, P. and Davis, E. (2012). Mentoring That Fits. ASCD, Volume 69, https://ascd.org/el/articles/mentoring-that-fits

Holloway, J.H. (2001). Research Link / The Benefits of Mentoring. ASCD, 58(8). https://ascd.org/el/articles/-the-benefits-of-mentoring