Coaching and Mentoring

#UKEdChat session 523.
Mentoring and coaching creates a legacy for teachers to pass on to the next generation.
Mentoring feeds back into the mentors skillset and makes them better too.
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#UKEdChat session 523 – The idea of mentoring to develop the next generation goes back to ancient times. Masters would show their knowledge, practical skills and their network with apprentices to teach and to create a legacy. Coaching, often thought as a synonym, is subtly different. While mentoring is focused on development, coaching is more performance-driven and is often focused on achieving a particular goal, such as winning in sport.

Elements of both can be found in the modern classroom. Shifting the focus from teaching to mentoring and/or coaching changes how teachers may approach their lessons and create a slightly different role of the learners.

Teaching is a profession which relies on mentoring new teachers. But there is often the assumption that the skills needed to teach a teaching a class are the same as assisting a fellow teacher into the profession.

In this #UKEdChat discussion, on Thursday 1st October 2020 at 8pm (UK), we discussed how mentoring and coaching is used in the modern classroom, what are the benefits and disadvantages of shifting focus to these methods of imparting skills and knowledge, and what training is needed to best help the mentors and coaches to help new teachers.

Questions

What is your understanding of coaching and mentoring, and what do you seen as the difference between the two?
What are your top tips for mentoring and coaching?
To what level do you think you think of teaching as a mentoring/coaching process in your own classroom?
Why do you choose or not choose to mentor fellow teachers?
How can mentors best deliver constructive criticism to their mentees?
How can mentors make the process personalised?
How best to relate one’s personal experience and expertise when mentoring?
What are the positives for the mentors by mentoring?