5th iNet International Conference, 26 28 November 2008

Through personalising learning, teachers and other members of the school community will increasingly take on roles as mentors and coaches. There is a distinction between the terms 'coach' and 'mentor', however it is often a subtle one. Traditionally coaches are seen as having some sort of expertise. The relationship between the coach and coached is one in which the coach is in the position of authority.

By contrast, the relationship between the mentor and mentee is more balanced. The mentor does not tend to be in a position of authority, and the mentee can terminate the relationship at any point. In both mentoring and coaching, however, it is possible for both parties to gain a lot from the experience, and the benefits are usually two-way. The concepts of mentoring and coaching show that the distinction between teacher and learner is increasingly blurred.

There are three main types of mentoring and coaching:

• Student to student (e.g. peer academic mentoring, in which students teach one another or help each other to learn)
• Adult to student (e.g. a staff member or an adult from outside the school community)
• Adult to adult (e.g. teacher to teacher, as well as other adults working with school staff on professional development issues)

Resources

• A more detailed exposition of the ideas, together with case studies of exisiting practice can be found in the Personalising learning 5 pamphlet
• Further case studies looking at how mentoring and coaching complement some of the other gateways are available in the Deep support 1 publication

Assessment for learning | Learning to learn | Student voice | Curriculum | New technologies | School design and organisation | Advice and guidance | Mentoring and coaching | Workforce development