WHAT IS MENTORING?
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Homer’s Odyssey
Odysseus, king of Ithaca – Trojan war
Mentor
Son – Telemachus
Athena, Goddess of War and patroness of
the arts and industry
Trusted advisor
Protégé
Friend
Teacher
Wise person
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Socrates & Plato
Hayden & Beethoven
Freud & Jung
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• Mentoring is a process in which one person [the
mentor] is responsible for overseeing the career and
development of another person [the mentee] outside
the normal subordinate relationship.” (Collin (1979)
cited in Clutterbuck, 2004:11)
WHO IS IN CHARGE?
• DIRECTIVE: Mentor takes primary responsibility in
managing the relationship
• NON-DIRECTIVE: Mentee sets the agenda and Mentor
encourages independence and self-reliance in terms
of coming to conclusions and finding the way forward
(Clutterbuck, 2004)
SKILLS
 Mentorship can develop skills in
"time management... learning when
to talk and when to listen is good
for your communication skills; and
you will develop good interpersonal
skills as you interact with others,
having to exercise tact, discretion
and respect for values which may
differ from your own." PA Peer
Mentor Handbook (Adams-Davey
2012)
 “The core skill of a
mentor [is] having
sufficient sensitivity to
the mentee’s needs to
respond with
appropriate
behaviours.”
(Clutterbuck, 2004:18)
THE BASIC STYLES OF HELPING
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Directive (hands on, Mentor in control)
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Non-Directive (more passive, mentee independent approach, Mentee in control)
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Stretching (assisting to extend & broaden possibilities)
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Nurturing (cultivate, foster, protect)
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Coaching (Setting goals, mentee (learner) commitment important, challenging
mentee’s assumptions, being a critical friend, demonstrating how – Directive)
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Guiding (giving advice, taking an interest in the mentee’s development, subtle
psychological contract – Directive)
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Networking (making mentee aware of people,
resources, and more formal repositories of knowledge
– Non-Directive)
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Counselling (support, listening ear, - Non-Directive)
(Clutterbuck, 2004)
THE MENTOR/MENTEE RELATIONSHIP
“The interaction between the mentor and mentee is a self-reinforcing system –
each party’s behaviour influences the behaviour of the other. This in turn will
influence the process – e.g. how frequently they meet, how deeply they explore
issues. And finally, the effectiveness of the process will have a strong influence on
the outcomes, which can be categorised as either supporting (often referred to…
as psychosocial) or career-oriented.” (Clutterbuck, 2004:14)
In Performing Arts the mentee
is less of a protégé and the
relationship is nonhierarchical and more equal.
(Adams-Davey, June 2013)
“the most effective relationships in which
personal development is the desired
outcome are those in which the mentee is
relatively proactive and the mentor relatively
passive or reactive.” (Ibid. 16)
Developmental Mentoring
Sponsoring Mentoring
Mentee (literally, one who is helped to think)
Protégé (literally, one who is protected)
Two way learning
One-way learning
The power and authority of the mentor are
‘parked’
The mentor’s power to influence is central to
the relationship
Mentor helps mentee decide what he/she
wants and [they] plan how to achieve it
Mentor intervenes on mentee’s behalf
Begins with an ending in mind
Often ends in conflict, when mentee outgrows
mentor and rejects advice
Built on reciprocal loyalty
Built on learning opportunities and friendship
Most common form of help is stimulating
insight
Most common forms of help are advice and
introductions
Mentor may be peer or even junior- it is
experience that counts
Mentor is older and more senior
HOW & WHY?
• “Mentors can be a
powerful force for
developing [students and
institutions]. Mentoring
experiences often contain
a bit of improvisation and
drama, which we later
remember and use.” (my
italics, Shea, 2002:10)
ATHENA…
APPROPRIATENESS
Empathy
Focus
Maturity
Listening skills
Determination to succeed
Good sense of equality and
inclusion
 Patience
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Success as a human being and their ability to relate to others on a human level is
imperative to the role of the Mentor. (Adams-Davey, June 2013)
1. EMAIL
Dear All,
You have been recommended as having the skills to be a suitable candidate to be a student mentor
for the next academic year. I am, therefore, writing to request if you would consider applying for a
position in the scheme starting from September 2013?
A mentor is someone who a student can turn to in times of need, and it is about giving first years
help, support, and advice, whilst they are new to University life, from peers who are in an informed
position to do so. Mentors will be responsible for a small group of first year students and, equally,
mentors will have an allocated member of staff who they can turn to if they need help, support,
and advice within role.
There will be a day’s training in September and it is my intention for this to be a dialogue workshop
between us all, in order that the best possible mentorship service is available for everyone.
If this is something that you would be interested in, please could you complete the attached
application form and return it to me as an email attachment by Monday 1 st July 2013.
Kind Regards,
Lisa Adams-Davey
“When people achieve a great level of
success, it is their personal responsibility to
share what they have learned with those
around them. This is Mentoring.” (Jay et al,
2007:55)
2. APPLICATION
3. PROCESSING
4. SUMMER CORRESPONDENCE
Please provide a brief statement about why you think you would make a good
student mentor. Consider the necessary qualities that would make a successful
mentor.
THE TRAINING DAY - AGENDA
12.00pm
Registration & Lunch
1.00pm
Welcome from the Mentor Co-ordinator: Lisa AdamsDavey
1.05pm
What is a Mentor?
The Aims and Objectives of a Mentor
The Scheme, how it works, & what we can do better this
year
1.45pm
Transition
2.30pm
Communication
The Mentor Handbook
Induction Materials
The Mentor Schedule
2.55pm
AOB
Date of the next meeting
3.00pm
Close
PEER MENTOR HANDBOOK
Table of contents
9. Well Being and Opportunities
1. Introduction
10. What’s in it for me?
2. Contacts: Peer Mentor Co-ordinator &
Contact
Details
11. Do’s and Don’ts
3. Contacts: Performing Arts, Accommodation
12. Mature students, Meeting your students
4. Contacts: Counselling, Medical
13. Mature students, Meeting your students
5. Contacts: Finance, SU, IT Services
14. Fresher’s Week
6. Students with additional support needs
15. When are the holidays?
7. Contacts: Inclusion, Edge Ahead,
16. My student list
Chaplaincy Service
8. Library Services, Sporting Edge
17. Useful numbers/notes
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
Being a peer mentor is a responsible position. The new students you will be
befriending may look to you for support and advice and should be able to
trust you. Confidentiality is extremely important. However, you must be able
to recognise your own limits and know when you need to refer a new student
on to a member of academic staff, an academic department, or the SIC.
Your job is to answer questions to the best of your ability, or to refer them on
to someone that can, either within your department, or in student services.
You should advise the student whom they need to see, if they are unsure,
wherever possible, the best option is to take them there yourself.
DO’S & DON’TS
Do
• Remember what it felt like to
be a new student
• Get to know your new
students
• Encourage the new students
to meet others
• Be positive
• Give them your email address
• Try and arrange a contact
hour or meet for coffee each
week, just to chat
• Seek advice if you feel
overwhelmed by a situation
Don’t
• Give out your phone number to
someone you don’t know
• Give specific advice on finance,
welfare, health or academic issues.
Instead, take your student to an
appropriate and qualified source of
help.
• Give biased opinions, or overinfluence new students.
• Give the impression you’re too
busy to talk – arrange a convenient
time
• Guess the answer to a question.
Admit you don’t know the answer
then take your student to find the
correct one.
• Forget you represent not only
yourself but the University
WHY DO WE NEED A
PEER MENTORING SCHEME?
Retention????
TRANSITION
TRANSITION
&
PROHIBITING FACTORS
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Economic and emotional insecurity
Poor health
Poor prior transition experiences
Hostile work/school environment
Poor transition management
EDUCATIONAL TRANSITIONS
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Learning environments, between or within
institutions
Teachers and facilitators
Pedagogical practices
Peer and friendship groups
Expectations of performance and types of
assessment
Changes in required skills
Conceptual understanding
Perceptions of the nature of knowledge
itself
Ways of thinking about learning
Ways of thinking about self and identity
TRANSITION
ISSUES
Conceptions of new
environment (stereotypes,
schemas, teaching and
learning strategies)
Changing Emotions
Decline in levels of attainment
Focus, motivation and resilience
Self beliefs
and selfefficacy
Social support (family, peers)
CONCEPTUAL TRANSITIONS
• When students have
misconceptions, they
constitute a barrier to effective
Learning
• Loss of skills in holidays
• Lack of continuity of curriculum,
teaching environment
• Disillusionment / boredom
• Difficulty in transition related to
dissatisfaction and subsequent
dropout
DECLINE IN LEVELS OF ATTAINMENT
JUST ANOTHER TRANSITION?
Sheehy, G. (1976). Passages: Predictable
Crises of Adult Life . New York: Random
House Publishing Group.
ARCHETYPICAL TRANSITIONS FOR
OUR UNDERGRADUATES…
• Leaving college or school
• Moving house
• New Peer group
• New campus
• New Lecturers
• New Teaching Philosophies
• Information Overload
• Independence
• New Found Freedom
• Fresher’s Flu
• Illness
• Finances
• Stress (e.g. Exam pressures)
• New part-time work
• Illness and/or Death of a Grandparent
“…MANY PEOPLE… WISH THEY COULD HAVE… A MENTOR AT
FORMATIVE PERIODS OR TIMES OF CRITICAL PERSONAL
TRANSITION” (CLUTTERBUCK, 2004:7)
• ENROLMENT
• INDUCTION
 Tutor Group
Meetings
 Activities
 Performances
 Organised Q&A’s
 Workshops
 Visibility &
Availability
“Sustained and consistent induction increases the retention rate when it is custom
designed and incorporates personal attention.” (Blackwell (2004) cited in Mitchell
2008)
WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
Making a Difference
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Through the time and effort you put in, you will see that you are really making a difference
to the kind of start many new students get at university.
Skills and Recognition
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In your role as peer mentor you will use and develop a lot of skills that will be useful to you
in the future. However, simply telling a potential employer that you have been a peer
mentor is not actually showing you have the skills. You need to make the potential
employer understand why your role as a peer mentor makes you valuable: you need to
analyse what you have learned/have experience of, and explain it in business terms, the
careers team and your peer mentor co-ordinator can help you with this for your CV.
•
Balancing work commitments and your social life, and finding time to make sure that new
students you are looking after are well and happy, is about using your time management
skills; learning when to talk and when to listen is good for your communication skills;
while you will develop good interpersonal skills as you interact with others, having to
exercise tact, discretion and respect for values which may differ from your own.
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In addition, when writing your references for future applications, your referee can make a
testimonial about your participation in the Mentor Scheme and how this has benefitted
you and those that you have helped.
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Establish another role in the community
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Enhance the community and relations
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Develop a personal profile, networking, & friendship groups
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Provide peer support & help for others
ONLINE PEER
MENTORING SURVEY
2013 (PERFORMING ARTS &
MEDIA)
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Communication
Social interaction
Building rapport
Helping people
Awareness of problems
Empathy
 Objectivity
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Time management
Adaptability
Management and leadership
Confidence
Mediating between staff and students
Building relationships
Online Peer Mentoring SURVEY 2013
(Performing Arts & Media)
 12% had been involved in mentoring
before
 Just over half wanted to enhance their cv
 94% wanted to help other students
 88% felt that the training they had
received had prepared them for the role
and 12% were neutral.
 59% sought support from other Mentors
 82% felt that the handbook they received
was helpful and the same percentage felt
that the Facebook group was useful.
With mentorship “comes the satisfaction
from helping someone else – the vicarious  100% felt that they had a manageable
number of mentees.
pleasure of seeing someone else succeed.”  83% were able to deal with the questions
(Clutterbuck, 2004:6)
raised by mentees
 53% referred mentees onto central
services
“MENTORING SKILLS ARE
TRANSFERABLE.”
(JAY ET AL, 2007:46)
MENTOR & MENTEE INTERVIEWS
PERFORMING ARTS MAY 2013
“A Mentor teaches you the tricks of the
trade. They know things you need to
know from years of practice.” (Jay et al,
2007:57)
IMPROVEMENTS?
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Celebratory Lunch / Presentations
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Meetings and Correspondence
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Sharing – DVD & Data
“…mentoring occurs only
when the [student] creates
an intervention in the
relationship that goes
beyond [studentship];
otherwise, the word
mentoring has no special
meaning.” (Shea, 2002:12)
SUCCESSES…?
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Mentor
Mentee
The Department
The University
Lecturers/Tutors
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Retention
Well-being
A broadened sense of community
Better working relationships
“In practice, mentors provide a spectrum of learning and supporting behaviours,
from challenging and being a critical friend to being a role model, from helping to
build networks and develop personal resourcefulness to simply being there to
listen, from helping people work out what they want to achieve, and why, to
planning how they will bring change about. A mentor can also be a conscience, a
friend….” (Clutterbuck, 2004:3)
WHY I WANT TO BE A MENTOR?
I want to help welcome the new first years. The first few months of university was quite
scary … therefore, I would love to help people feel welcomed like my student mentor did
last year…. It was nice knowing I could talk to someone who had already experienced
first year… [it] gave me more of an insight to the year coming ahead. Therefore, I want to
return the favour and do my part for the course…. Today, people on our course are good
friends with their mentors and still ask for advice when needed, I too want to help guide
first year students through their course and be there to help when I can. I believe I can
achieve the role of student mentor, as I am an approachable person who is happy to
help others, and want other people to enjoy their time at university [in the first year] like
I did. (WESLEY MOXON)
To be a mentor would be very fulfilling for me as I feel I would be giving the first year
students the same support that I received, which would hopefully ease them into
university life. (PORTIA TRISTRAM)
I've learned a lot this year, and I think I'd be able to help the first years as I'm a good
listener and I believe I could offer them practical advice on how to cope with their
workload etc. I also think I'm quite an approachable person and someone who hopefully
people can turn to if they want help with anything. Personally I want to do it as it seems
to be a rewarding thing to do and I would enjoy being able to help others. (EMILY NEADS)
WHY I WANT TO BE A MENTOR?
I chose to ask to be a mentor because I like helping people out, making them
feel safe and comfortable within their environment, and as the environment
they are entering is quite overwhelming and new, an extra voice and person to
talk to could help them ease into [it] better; and I would like to be that voice.
Also I feel that it is a good opportunity to get more involved with [what’s] going
on [in] Performing Arts, generating a warm and communicative community. As
well as this, it means both the first years and I can ask for each others' help
with [performance] pieces. In addition it would not go amiss on my CV!!!
(ALEXAUNA DIXON)
…. I am interested in being a mentor for the new
fresher's [because] I think it would be a good
opportunity and I would like to be there for the new
students. I feel that I would get a lot out of being a
mentor. (AMY COONEY)
Mentorship is about ‘Man’s Humanity to Man.”
(Clutterbuck, 2004:7)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Ali PA, Panther W (2008) Professional development and the role of mentorship. Nursing
Standard. 22, 42, 35-39. Date of acceptance: April 3 2008.
 Clark Robin & Andrews Jane (2011) Tackling Transition: Peer mentoring as a route to
student success: The Findings of a Multi-Case Study Research Project Aston University, UK
 Clutterbuck, David (2004, 4th Edition) Everyone Needs a Mentor: Fostering Talent in Your
Organisation The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
 Daloz, Laurent A. (2012) Mentor: Guiding the Journey of Adult Learners Jossey Bass
 Jay, Robin et al (2007) Thinking Beyond the Boundaries of Limitation: The Power of
Mentorship Real Life Teaching / Publishing
 Mitchell, Lisa Nanette (2008) Teacher Induction in North Carolina: Relationships to
Retention Proquest LLC
 Moor, Juan Thomas (2008) Effectiveness of Mentoring on the Retention of Urban Middle
School Teachers Capella University
 Shea, Gordon F (2002, 3rd Edition) Mentoring: How to Develop Successful Mentoring
Behaviours Van Hoffman Graphics Inc.
 Sheehy, G. (1976). Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life. New York: Random House
Publishing Group.
With special thanks to:
Ursula Curwen (Sociology, Edge Hill University)
Debbie Pope (Psychology, Edge Hill University)
Alistair Emmett and the Media Development Team