Importance of Mentoring and Developing a Mentoring Program

This report discusses the importance of mentoring and how to develop, implement, and evaluate a mentoring program. It includes a literature review on mentoring, analyzing the specific needs of mentees, and producing an action learning report on a mentoring project. The report also provides insights on goal planning, building relationships, celebrating wins, and overcoming challenges. The mentoring program discussed in the report is focused on teaching Bangladeshi dishes through Zoom software.

Report on Mentoring
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Discussion of action research project..............................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................9
Critically reflection......................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Mentorship is the responsibility where an individual person has to direct and guide their
student and or mentee and deliver the appropriate knowledge and education from which they can
be able to grow and develop in effective manner. The report generally discuss the importance of
the mentoring and develop, implement and evaluate a mentoring program along with specific
needs of the mentee in regard to mentoring activities (Shelley André, 2018). At last, it also
mention the reflection part upon own learning areas from this particular project report. From the
initial phase of the assignment, mentorship program which was run for the mentee who wants to
learn about Bangladeshi dishes.
1. Project learning contract
It involves the brief details about the project so that it can be cleared to learner, short
details like project initiation and ending dates should also be present in such contracts so that
proper layout can be followed for better completion.
Date: 1/4/2022 End date: 15/4/2022
Student name: John
Faculty name: XYZ
Objective: Objective of this to make mentee learn about the Bangladeshi recipe through
mentoring session. Main aim is/was to make the learner have good grasp over the cooking
knowledge as this session was conducted run for 10 days through zoom software.
Main purpose: As through this learner were able to develop understanding about the cooking,
so that they can implement it in their career as well. Learner could also be able to follow the chef
path for their career (Mullen, and et.al., 2021).
Methodology: For teaching the cooking lesson, zoom software are used as an online medium,
and also by developing the list of the learning outcomes for every mentoring session will help in
making learner knowledgeable regarding cooking (Briscoe, and et.al., 2019). Due to the
pandemic covid impact mentoring cannot be done face to face so Zoom alternative can be used
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as it offers the better features that helps in mentoring. As in this mentoring mutual peer
mentoring can also be carried out by using Zoom software that are mainly supervised by the
tutors at the university. At first it is important for the mentee and mentor to fill the consent form
in order to prevent from any miserable situation, thus for mentoring the mentee for Teaching the
Bangladeshi dishes consent form is being filled, which shows the willingness of the participants.
Mentor also ensured that the mentee was not allergic to some ingredients and hence list of
ingredients have been provided. Therefore for this mentorship program already consent form has
been taken out which covered the all information that helps in avoiding the unethical problems.
Literature Review
2. Develop, implement and evaluate the mentoring programme that represents the critical
awareness about the relevant literature
Mentoring program was not easy task it comes with the responsibility for the mentor to
make their mentee completely understood about the specific topic. To develop a mentor
program, it is important to arrange all the resources and design the strategies that can be further
implemented in the mentoring program. As to address the particular topic, mentor must have the
enough knowledge so that they can continue their mentoring program with efficiency. In context
with to mentoring the peer about the Bangladeshi cooking, it is important for the mentor to have
enough knowledge about it. As per the view of Broughton, and et.al., (2019) mentoring program
is the structured and systematic approach that requires the strategic planning to increase the
knowledge and develop the skills for future milestones. As for developing the mentoring
program it is essential to define the purpose and goals, therefore in regards with the given
scenario mentoring program should be done for 10 days and it was implemented through the
Zoom online software to make then mentee to learn about cooking the Bangladeshi dishes (Rice
and et.al 2020).To monitor the success of the mentee in ending of every session some question
answer session was there to test the knowledge of mentee, thus it would help in providing the
clear clue so that further mentoring process can be proceed. According to the piaget theory it is
found that human have the four distinct development stage for progress which is sensorimotor,
preoperational, concrete, and formal operational stages. It suggests how child develops a mental
model of the world. Regarding this mentoring case mentee is at formal operational level as it is
found that mentee is adult, thus in this it is obvious they think about moral, ethical and social
issues. Thus, in such it is important for the mentor to begin with the deductive approach as to
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start from general principle to specific information. In case of this mentoring program all ethics
were performed by the mentor to ensure the safe delivery of the learning session.
As feedback is the efficient process to evaluate the mentoring programme, it will help in
improvising the mentoring process (Ferreres, 2018). To mentor the mentee about the cooking it
is important to have the flow of effective communication it helps in laying out the better and
productive results. Feedbacks process can be easily evaluated as it guides in enhancing the owns
work. Thus, in cooking mentoring, it is already conduct through the online medium which means
mentee might be less interested in learning process, thus for such it is essential to conduct
questionnaire round in between that help in increasing the focus. Also, questionnaire guides in
clearing the doubts, with this mentor would be able to improve in their teaching method so that it
leads the mentor to clear all the queries of the mentees. According to the view of Cochran, and
et.al., (2019) mentoring program can be implemented with the proper strategies so that it gives
the assurance for efficient completion of such program. In such it is necessary that to analyse the
learner’s need that guides in developing the plan, it helps in increasing the focus on those areas
which are required to improve. For that reason, it is also important to match the mentors and
mentees that helps in balancing each other’s weakness and strength. Therefore, it is also a
challenge for selecting the suitable mentor that have the knowledge about their mentoring topic
guides in effective mentorship. In context with the Vygotsky’s theory it suggests that human
progress as the socially mediated approach where the children mainly acquire their cultural
aspects and believes. Thus mentor also done some ethical approach to ensure inclusivity and
diversity in the mentorship program. Also mentor has ensured their activities so that in any
instance it does not hurt the cultural values of mentee.
Therefore, for the mentoring session for teaching the cooking lesson, it is important to
ensure that particular mentee is familiar with the Bangladeshi dishes as it helps in them to
develop interest about particular things that also helpful for the evaluation of such process. It is
often fins that some of the users do not have the enough knowledge to operate with the software,
thus it is the responsibility of the mentor to know their mentee is able to use the software. In this
case mentor can proceed to analyse the mentee’s knowledge to operate with the Zoom software.
As it is important otherwise mentorship program for cooking learning cannot be done efficiently
or appropriately. Author DeMaria, (2020) stated that one should have the leadership and
coaching skills that guides in throughout the project, which also gives the assurance for the
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successful completion of any program. Therefore, to teach about the Bangladeshi cooking
mentor already learns about the methods as to teach how this dish can be prepared and to make
the notes about the ingredients which mainly use in preparing this dish (Destin, Castillo and
Meissner, 2018). On the basis of the Dewey theory, it suggests that interdisciplinary curriculum
that concentrates on linking with the different subjects where the students are allowed to freely
walk in and out from the classroom. It is the best method to pursue the own interest and develop
the specific knowledge as for the mentoring program it is important to allow mentee to take time
and to provide the flexibility that helps in developing interest in them regarding learning
activities.
Discussion of action research project
3. Analysing the specific needs of the mentee to produce planned and resources mentoring
activities
The mentee is a student who needs to adopt the knowledge and education and have the
ambition to adopt it in appropriate manner. In other words, mentor is responsible and has a duty
to guide and direct the mentee or their student from where they can be able to acquire the definite
amount of knowledge and education. The main aim and purpose of mentee is to gain the
knowledge from where it will be beneficial for the student to grow in their personal and
professional life as well. When so ever, an individual person or student wants to adopt the
education they have to keep their focus on the mentor instructions and direction as mentor is the
person who can deliver the effectiveness and can help the mentee in the entire process of
collecting the education. There are different kinds of responsibilities a mentee has where they
have to listen to the mentor carefully and actively which will clarify the doubts (Murray, Stollar,
McClellan, King and Hattey, 2018). Thus, there are different needs of the mentee as well where
producing the plan and resources of mentoring activities which will help the mentor to follow for
giving the appropriate education.
Build up the relationship: The first stage starts from building the relationship between the
mentor and mentee from where the mentee can be able to feel comfortable and can convey their
speech and conversation in effective manner. Being comfortable is the most important thing for
an individual person or a mentee to describe the information and can easily get comfortable. It
will also help the mentee to meet up with their needs and requirements and supports them to lose
and reduce their stress and can easily ask the question to the mentor and can obtain the proper
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knowledge. Building the relationship with the mentee by the mentor will provide the
effectiveness in the learning areas. Mentors can build up the relationship by organising some
activities like question answer round where they can make two teams and ask the question to
both the teams which will help them to engage with each other. Thus during this session mentor
has already made the good interaction with the mentee that results in better learning program.
Goal planning session: To start any session, the goal planning is required to be done in the
respective manner from where the s\mentee a\can be able to get the desired results and outcome
their education and can become successful in personal and professional life. A proper discussion
on the goals and how to achieve them planning is significant and plays a major role in the
mentorship where it enable the mentee to understand the vision and aim in definite manner and
can contribute, he efforts in achieving he success (du Plessis, Cullinan, Gramotnev, Schmidt and
et.al., 2020).
Celebrate their wins: It is important to celebrate the success and wins when a mentee provides
the effective and good results. A good mentor always has to keep their focus on the mentee needs
and desires where celebration is also included in that from where it help the mentee to feel
motivate and courageous and can achieve their set goals in future as well. Goals can be relate the
achieve the good result in the educational courses from where the student or mentee can be able
to grow definitely at their professional level.
Help in overcoming and dealing the challenges: For being a good mentor it is required to
understand the needs and helps the mentee to deal with the issues and challenges in appropriate
manner so that the mentee can feel a support and easily overcome the issues and challenges.
4. Producing an action learning report on mentoring project which clearly defines how this
project can help to inform and improve the professional practice.
Define program goal: Many organisations design the mentorship program to enhance the
performances from where it can provide the different ways to achieve the goals. Designing of the
mentorship program that help the company to keep their focus on the boarding process and can
easily focus on the new hires at the workplace. Setting of the goals and objective allow the
mentor to understand the company goals and targets from where they can put their best efforts in
making the company grow and also help them to improve their own leadership skills. However,
from the learning areas had increased by cognitive ability which was the first goals for to be
achieved.
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Mentoring process: Mentoring programs can help the mentors to take the part in the learning
process that will help to determine the benefits (Gisbert-Trejo, Landeta, Albizu and Fernández-
Ferrín, 2019). It will encourage the people to improve their personal and professional skills and
can enable them to develop in their own role and position. Mentor use the activity where Piaget
play helps and stimulate the mentees to develop their thinking process.
Select program participants: Selection of the program participants is required from where it
will enable the company to understand the needs and requirements of the mentoring programs
from where it also express the strengths and weak points of the people from where they can learn
and grow in definite manner. The company has to choose the mentors in the participants where it
could acknowledge them to provide the position of the mentor for the mentees and can provide
the effective results and outcome.
Match mentor and mentees: Facilitate rewarding mentoring opportunities by matching your
mentor and mentee to balance their strengths and weaknesses. You may have mentors with
valuable experience in areas where your mentee would like to learn (Bredella, Alvarez,
O’Shaughnessy, and et.al., 2021). Carefully review each person's job application, interview
notes, or professional profile to find the best matches.
Provide mentorship training: Also, the company has to provide the mentorship training to their
employee and staff members from where it will help them to feel motivated and can train and
educate the trainee people in effective manner. Thus, it is important for the companies to
organise the mentorship training programs and lead the employee to mentor their mentee in the
appropriate manner which provides the effective results and outcome.
My action
Be inclusive, as it is important for me to be culturally aware to teach the diverse
background mentee. All these helps me in successfully completing the mentorship program. As
such relationship will take time, in such I proceeded to ask my mentee about her experience and
also it is my first time for such mentorship I learn from the self-reflection that helps in following
all ethics. I also used to make sure about the cross cultural topic and to practice and reviewing
my words before speaking to make sure it do not offend my mentee. Ethical issues such as to
maintain the confidentiality of my mentee, as I consider it as major factor and I also commit to
myself for such program in future I will practice all ethics for the good flow of any process. I
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learn a lot from this mentoring process as how to interact with the diverse culture people and to
be more attentive when speaking, thus it helps in providing the better learning experience that
helps the other one to increase their knowledge and fulfil the learning goals.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that mentorship comes up with the specific
responsibility that guides the mentor to play their duty towards learner. In such both mentee and
mentor involve in learning process while mentor learn some skills and enhance their knowledge
by sharing it to other and mentee develops the knowledge about particular things that guides
them in their future. Following above report have illustrated about the mentorship program to
teach the mentee about cooking the Bangladeshi dishes, it covers the discussion about the project
learning contracts that highlighted the areas which are mentorship program objective,
methodology and its main purpose. Report further evaluated the development, implementation
and evaluation of the mentoring that helps in creating the awareness about the literature review.
It further analysed the specific requirement of the mentee to develop the planned and resources
mentoring activities. It finally discusses the action learning report for the mentoring project and
evaluate the reflection over the own learning. From this mentorship, it helps in developing the
leadership and communication skills which leads for successful career. It helps in learning the
different knowledge and experience which have never familiar with. Also develop the technical
knowledge to interact with such software so that in future this kind of work or project can be
easily lay out. For further development it is important to have the time management skills so that
every work will be done on proper time, for that reason prioritising the work according to its
usefulness can be beneficial.
REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bredella, M.A., Alvarez, C., O’Shaughnessy, and et.al., 2021. Radiology mentoring program for
early career faculty—implementation and outcomes. Journal of the American College of
Radiology, 18(3), pp.s451-456.
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Briscoe, and et.al., 2019. The role of mentorship in the preparation and success of university
presidents. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning. 27(4). pp.416-438.
Broughton, and et.al., 2019. Mentorship: The necessity of intentionality. American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry. 89(3). p.317.
Cochran, and et.al., 2019. Characteristics of effective mentorship for academic surgeons: a
grounded theory model. Annals of surgery, 269(2). pp.269-274.
DeMaria, A.N., 2020. Mentorship. Structural Heart. 4(6). pp.451-452.
Destin, M., Castillo, C. and Meissner, L., 2018. A field experiment demonstrates near peer
mentorship as an effective support for student persistence. Basic and Applied Social
Psychology. 40(5). pp.269-278.
du Plessis, A.E., Cullinan, M., Gramotnev, G., Gramotnev, Schmidt, and et.al., 2020. The
multilayered effects of initial teacher education programs on the beginning teacher
workforce and workplace: Perceptions of beginning teachers and their school
leaders. International Journal of Educational Research. 99, p.101488.
Ferreres, A.R., 2018. Brief history of mentorship. In Surgical mentorship and leadership (pp. 3-
8). Springer, Cham.
Gisbert-Trejo, N., Landeta, J., Albizu, E. and Fernández-Ferrín, P., 2019. Determining effective
mentor characteristics in inter-organizational mentoring for managers: an approach
based on academics’ and practitioners’ perspectives. Industrial and Commercial
Training.
Mullen, and et.al., 2021. Defining mentoring: a literature review of issues, types, and
applications. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1483(1). pp.19-35.
Murray, K.A., Stollar, M., McClellan, R., King, J. and Hattey, J.A., 2018. A systematic map and
scoping review of soft skill assessment instruments for college students and peer
mentoring programs. Nacta Journal. 62(3), pp.267-274.
Rice, M.K. and et.al 2020. Association of mentorship and a formal robotic proficiency skills
curriculum with subsequent generations’ learning curve and safety for robotic
pancreaticoduodenectomy. JAMA surgery. 155(7). pp.607-615.
Shelley André, R.N., 2018. Embracing generational diversity: Reducing and managing
workplace conflict. ORNAC Journal. 36(4), p.13.
APPENDIX
Critically reflection
Reflection is the efficient process that helps in analysing, finding and assessing the depth
assumption which is about the knowledge and the approach to perceive with such events.
Reflection helps in improvising the own areas so that it will help in solving the particular
problem. Boud Keogh and walker reflection model helps in learning from the situation so that
same mistakes can be avoid in future. It covers the specific element which are as follows:
It is the initial stage of this model which discuss the situation analysis, as for me to mentor
my mentee about the Bangladeshi cooking lesson, as first I was not prepare for such but with the
professor support as they told me that I have good knowledge in this concept. Thus, I will
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prepare all the study materials so that I can efficiently done the mentorship process. Throughout
the session I also asked for the feedbacks so that it will help me in enhancing my teaching
approach. Initially I was nervous because I have never been through such situation, but during
this mentorship evaluation I kind of develop some interest that helps me in teaching my mentee.
I feel that I will be able to do such activities in future as well. As the learning cooking session
will be done through the Zoom software, for this I also learn about to operate with such tools.
But my mentee does not aware about such tool will consume more time, as one of the sessions
consumes lots of time because my mentee does not know about to operate with Zoom platform.
But with my guidance and suggestion mentee will be able to fix this problem and we were able
to continue our cooking learning session. Overall mentorship session was good I developed sort
of skills and knowledge which will help me in my future projects. As throughout the session I
also asked questions to my mentee so that I will be able to know that they have developed the
knowledge about Bangladeshi cooking or not. Also, during this I cleared out with my peers so
that I will be able to solve my own doubts, so that better teaching or learning solutions can be
delivered to my mentee. For better career opportunities it is important for me to develop the
skills and knowledge. As for mentorship program it is important to have better communication
skills so that I will be able to better deliver my message to mentees. It also helps in clearing their
doubts. Other skills can be decision making and problem-solving skills, with this I will be able to
solve any problem and to make any decision which is required in particular scenario. For each
skill and knowledge development I will require almost 6-month plan to utilise the resources to
develop and enhance the knowledge.
Metaphor helps in concluding me as a good mentor, as during the session I have learnt a
lot as how to manage the own knowledge and to develop knowledge in other. As my mentee has
shown great resilience throughout, she has shown trust in my mentoring skills. I let her to ask
queries so that her doubts will be cleared, and we will move to the next stage. Overall mentoring
experience was good I also use the Vygotsky and piaget theory to practice the better mentorship
with this I was able to take care of different emotions and cultural awareness so that this
mentoring process can smoothly runs.
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