Evoke Development

Have you ever known someone who:

• Provided an “aha!’ experience that allowed you to pierce the core meaning of some event, in someone, in something, or in yourself?
• Helped you uncover an aspect, ability, or talent of yours that, until then, had lain dormant and unrecognized?
• Helped you grow and deepen your character, moral, or ethical integrity or gain a stronger commitment to your values?

If so, you have experienced one of the oldest forms of human development – mentoring. Mentoring can be defined as a significant, beneficial effect on the life or style of another person, generally as a result of personal one-on-one contact. A mentor is one who offers knowledge, insight, perspective, or wisdom that is especially useful to the other person. According to Kerka (1998), mentoring can provide individuals with opportunities to enhance their work-related knowledge base, cultural awareness, aesthetic appreciation, and the potential to lead meaningful lives.

Mentor's Role

The role of mentors is to help learners apply new information and skills to their existing knowledge base and construct meaning by interacting with others. Guiding learners through problem-solving strategies is one way that this may be accomplished. Sharing experiences and providing educational opportunities using guided experiential learning (asking questions or allowing the learner to fail) are other effective strategies. Ultimately, the goal of the mentor is to teach the learner to internalize the learning process and construct his/her own knowledge and understanding.

Process

Mentoring can be done by anyone, at any time and in almost any place. It can be accomplished informally through friendship or formally through structured programs. Many people who have been mentored recognize that something special happened, but they may not have known what to call the experience. The relationship is a special partnership where the mentor seeks ways to challenge the beliefs of the learner and the learner is faced with change and identifying new viewpoints. Ideally, both the mentor and the learner freely contribute to the discussion and work together as equals, based upon mutual respect.

Advantages

In today’s working environment, mentoring relationships help to strengthen the commitment of staff members by building trust and self-confidence. Individuals also tend to be more willing to embrace responsibility and take informed, calculated risks. Mentoring can be a win-win situation for everyone involved. To learn more about mentoring, type the keyword “mentoring” into your favorite Internet search engine or visit your local library.

References

Material found in Nurturing the Mentor in Your: The Mentor Survey located at http://www.peer.ca/test.html 

Material found in New Perspectives on Mentoring (1998) by Sandra Kerka at http://ericacve.org/docgen.asp?tbl=digest&ID=47