710 – Mentoring in Education

Course Description:

The course is primarily aimed at experienced teachers who will support beginner colleagues or will be responsible for a group of teachers in their institutions developing as a teacher educator or a trainer.

The course is primarily aimed at experienced teachers who will support beginner colleagues or will be responsible for a group of teachers in their institutions. This course can function for them as the first step in developing as a teacher educator or a trainer, while providing teacher development opportunities for them in their own professional practice.

The Mentor Course can also be beneficial for department heads and managers who wish to establish a more supportive communication style and promote professional development.

Prerequisites:

Aims:

The course intends to give insights into:

to provide teachers with a basic level of awareness and skills in mentoring teachers in an educational context

to demonstrate how mentor roles are different from those of a principal, a supervisor or an inspector.

to clarify how an institution may benefit from having a mentor system.

to demonstrate how focused observation can open up areas of a lesson.

to develop a range of observation tools which help the observer to collect evidence for discussion.

to see the difference between observation, interpretation and judgement.

to clarify the difference between summative and formative feedback.

Requirements for a Certificate:

Minimum attendance requirement is 75% of course events.

Practical Tasks like group and individual planning, observation, demonstration, micro-teaching, discussion and feed.

Assessed portfolio work

Details:

In our understanding mentors are school-based teachers with some teacher training responsibilities – they will support colleagues who work in the same institution and map out possible development paths for them.  Reflecting on first-hand classroom experience is now seen as the primary source of teacher development and so the mentor’s role is to develop their mentees’ reflective skills through class visits and reflective lesson discussions.

Course Outline:

710.01 – How individuals learn, grow and change behaviour

710.02 – The key elements of a Mentoring Process

710.03 – Networking, Counselling, Facilitating, Coaching

710.04 – Adapting your Mentoring Style to changing expectations

710.05 – Creating Trust and Psychological Safety

710.06 – Essentials of an effective Mentoring Language

710.07 – Giving Appreciative and Constructive Feedback

710.08 – Mentoring using the GROW model

710.09 – Inspiring staff and Overcoming Resistance to change

710.10 – Creative Mentorship and Career-Building Strategies

710.11 – Encouragement through genuine Positive Reinforcement

710.12 – Improving Individual and Team Performance