Analysis of Mentoring Models and their Effectiveness

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MENTORING IN THE WORKPLACE
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Contents
LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................................3
RATIONALE............................................................................................................................... 4
CRITICAL ANALYSIS................................................................................................................... 5
REFLECTION............................................................................................................................10
MAJOR FINDINGS................................................................................................................... 12
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 13
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: DISCOVERING NEW KNOWLEDGE.............................................................................5
Figure 2: APPLYING NEW KNOWLEDGE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH DISCOVERING NEW
KNOWLEDGE............................................................................................................................ 6
Figure 3: INTEGRATING KNOWLEDGE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH DISCOVERING AND
APPLYING NEW KNOWLEDGE...................................................................................................7
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RATIONALE
Mentoring is referred to a system in which a person sharing their knowledge and experience
with other person and guides action that help in building their career and leading to growth
MacLennan, (2017). This literature review is prepared to focus on the importance of
mentoring in the workplace by determining the models of mentoring, designing and
implementing mentoring programs and understanding mentoring in a particular working
environment. These three aspects of mentoring will be explained with the help of three
research articles for each topic. These articles are discovering, applying and integrating: The
process of learning in coaching; Learning to lead: Higher education faculty explore self-
mentoring and Online mentoring or the induction of beginning teachers. Thus, it would help
understand the theory of learning and the whole process of coaching, learning self-
mentoring and gaining confidence to lead and support provided from e-learning
programmes to beginning teachers for learning to mentor. Therefore, in the following
literature review, these researches will be critically analysed and discussed and meaningful
conclusions would be provided that would help in understanding the significance of
mentoring in the workplace.
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CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Discovering, applying and integrating: The process of learning in coaching
Cox, (2015) in an article explained that learning is the most significant part of coaching.
Coaching can be defined as a goal-directed process for lifting people, work and life. Learning
helps in changing the attitude, knowledge and skills of an individual and be achieved
through experiences. While taking coaching, the coaches have to undertake a process that
helps discover and learn new knowledge and skills for the clients (Griffiths, 2009). This
process includes four stages namely, relating, questioning, reflecting and listening.
Figure 1: DISCOVERING NEW KNOWLEDGE
Source: Griffiths, (2009)
Relating: This step is focused on maintaining an effective, honest and purposeful
relationship between the coach and the client.
Questioning: In this step, the coach asks questions to the clients to challenge and increase
their knowledge.
Reflecting: The clients can discover that they have gained new skills and knowledge through
coaching.
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Listening: The coach listens to the clients when they communicate about their discoveries of
new knowledge gained by them (Griffiths, 2009).
Therefore, it is an on-going process used for encouraging and strengthening learning in an
individual through coaching. After the clients discovered their new knowledge, they were
held accountable for applying that knowledge by either questioning further or taking actions
for implementation of the knowledge for making progress in their learning (Griffiths, 2009).
Therefore, the process of applying to learn can be better understood with the help of the
following diagram:
Figure 2: APPLYING NEW KNOWLEDGE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH DISCOVERING NEW
KNOWLEDGE
Source: Griffiths, (2009)
Thus, to integrate the newly discovered and applied knowledge, the client has to complete
the process of learning in coaching by holding accountable and taking responsibilities and
actions to learn new knowledge and skills by listening and self-coaching to gain effective
results. Therefore, the process of integrating knowledge can be presented as follows:
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Figure 3: INTEGRATING KNOWLEDGE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH DISCOVERING AND APPLYING
NEW KNOWLEDGE
Source: Griffiths, (2009)
Therefore, by analysing the discovery, application and integration of learning with the help
of coaching, it can be understood that these three steps are beneficial only when applied
together as learning has no meaning if knowledge is gained but not applied in life. Learning
is meaningful only when the teachings of the coaches or self-coaching are applied practically
(Griffiths, 2009).
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Learning to lead: Higher education faculty explore self-mentoring
Manning, (2017) stated that self-mentoring can be explained as an alternative to the
traditional practice of mentoring that helps in guiding, advising or supervising a mentee to
enhance their knowledge and experience. Self-mentors lead themselves in the new
environment and take responsibility for their growth by identifying and developing skills and
knowledge needed to fulfil their expectations. Manning, (2017) continued that self-
mentoring can be used by new faculty entering in a college or university to become a good
leader by directing themselves with the help of self-motivation and therefore improve their
personal behaviour and thinking abilities. Self-mentor can apply reflective techniques to
enhance their self-reflection and awareness that helps in reducing negative actions and
lifting positive behaviour.
Carr, (2016) argues that self-mentoring helps gain confidence in a person in handling
different situations and challenges and become an effective leader. The self-mentor are
focused on learning to lead by their own as they are self-motivated and they make a self-
mentoring plan that is helpful for them to achieve their desired goals and the learner
monitor their progress by matching the performance with the plans to gain efficiency in
their progress (Carr, 2016). Therefore, self-mentoring is an effective technique to become a
good educator and lead the students efficiently.
The universities or colleges also undertakes self-mentoring programs that offer facilities to
the staff to enhance their skills, knowledge and experience and develop their professional
career and also enhance their confidence that is required to become a good leader. A
faculty entering a new college faces various kinds of challenges in the workplace such as
increased workload, expectations of seniors, difference in language, culture, background,
etc. (Carr et al. 2015) Therefore, to overcome these challenges, the mentor applies the
technique of self-mentoring to enhance their learning and capabilities and meet one's
expectations. This helps in gaining more confidence and the individual can perform their
new faculty role in the college and increase their experience and enhance their leadership
skills and thus, took a step forward in becoming a successful mentor (Carr et al. 2015).
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Online mentoring for the induction of beginning teachers
Hooley (2016) explained in their research that online mentoring helps develop the
knowledge and skills of the mentees that result in attainment of their desired goals by
communicating with a mentor through online platforms that are safe. Online mentoring is
beneficial to the mentees as they can enhance their learning from various online sources by
connecting to people spread worldwide in different geographical regions (Hooley et al.
2015).
Many strategies can be used to enhance learning for the beginning teachers through online
sources as e-learning offers support to new teachers for enhancing their professional
development. The utilization of information technology and communication tools are
gaining importance in the modern era as they provide various opportunities and support for
developing the professional career of the beginning teachers (Brady & Schuck, 2009). Also,
the development of learning teams was helpful not only for the induction of new teachers in
the institute but also for all the teachers seeking guidance or support at some point. It helps
in enhancing learning among the teachers.
Ellis (2017) points out that online mentoring is beneficial to both the beginning teachers and
the experienced faculties to involve in the discussions and group meetings and share their
ideas and opinions and also the problems faced by them, therefore, clear their doubts with
the help of online participation activities held by the schools and online forums used for
discussing the important issues. Ellis (2017) also argues that there are some challenges to
online mentoring as there are some people who do not feel comfortable to share their
problems or opinions online as they prefer contacting to the other person face-to-face
rather than relying on electronic communications.
The online sources for mentoring are effective for some teachers as they get to know the
perspectives of many other teachers or professionals by reading their experiences, their
success and failure stories, their views and thoughts and identifying their ways of dealing
with a particular situation. Therefore, by understanding the pros and cons of online
mentoring, it can be said that online mentoring cannot be used as a substitute to face-to-
face mentoring for the induction of beginning teachers rather online mentoring can act as a
supplement to personal mentoring (Brady & Schuck, 2009).
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REFLECTION
Discovering, applying and integrating: The process of learning in coaching
After 1 month of peer mentoring, I can claim that it was a great experience to know the role
of mentees and understand my responsibilities as a mentor. I was able to gain insights about
how it feels to become a teacher and make students listen to you carefully; understand and
learn new knowledge and also apply that in their life. As a mentor, I realized that listening to
the mentees make them feel comfortable in our presence and asking questions to the
mentees is very important for conducting a two-way communication and increasing the
importance of learning in the coaching (Griffiths, 2015). I also explained the importance of
using the new knowledge and learning’s in practical life to the mentees so that they can
complete their process of learning.
Learning to lead: Higher education faculty explore self-mentoring
As a peer mentor, it was a wonderful experience to gain knowledge and understanding
about self-mentoring and its importance in learning to lead and boosting confidence to work
effectively and manage work as new faculty in a college or university. This learning
experience as a peer mentor will make it easier to handle the challenges when entering in a
college as a new faculty. Also, this research helped me in learning that I could face various
types of challenges by entering in a completely new environment and the occurring issues
could be effectively managed by applying approaches of self-mentoring as it would help me
in gaining confidence and become a good leader.
Online mentoring for the induction of beginning teachers
After being a peer mentor for few weeks, I found it to be a very good experience to use the
online sources such as e-mails and chat rooms to communicate with different teachers
online and know about their learning and experiences and gain insight about the
importance of online mentoring for the induction of beginning teachers in a school (Brady &
Schuck, 2009). As per my point of view, a new teacher must not only focus on
communicating online through different sources but also must engage in face-to-face
interactions in the school to gain information and knowledge about the procedures and
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culture of the institute and understand the nature of other teachers that adds on to their
experiences.
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MAJOR FINDINGS
Discovering, applying and integrating: The process of learning in coaching
As a mentor, I have understood that to work in an organisation and mentor the mentees
efficiently, the most important thing is to listen to them carefully. This helps in changing
their attitude and they feel connected and a good relationship is built between the mentor
and the mentee which is necessary for extending and strengthening the learning in an
individual (Griffiths, 2015). While mentoring in a workplace, I would focus on explaining the
importance of discovering; applying and integrating new knowledge gained in coaching and
use it in real life to bring actual change and accelerate learning.
Learning to lead: Higher education faculty explore self-mentoring
Being a mentor, I have gained insights about how a mentor can apply self-mentoring in an
organization or institute to overcome the challenges faced by the individual appointed as a
new faculty in the professional institute. To be a good mentor in the university, I would
focus on enhancing my leadership skills and gaining more confidence and meeting all the
obstacles, applying learning styles, developing personal strengths, making a self-mentoring
plan and improve my abilities to work effectively in a new environment to gain success. The
focus on these activities would result positively in making me a good higher education
professor.
Online mentoring for the induction of beginning teachers
Being appointed as a mentor in an institute, I would use both online and offline sources to
gain knowledge about the institute, it teaching practices, culture, and also learn about the
experiences shared by different teachers of different geographical regions and understand
the obstacles faced by them and what steps were taken by them to solve the problems
effectively so that I can use their techniques in solving the problems and challenges
occurring in my professional career (Brady & Schuck, 2009). Also, I would be seeking help
from my seniors or colleagues to get better and effective solutions to the problems I might
face in the institute.
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