Preparing: Reading 2
Acknowledging Learning Styles
According to Brookfield (1984, P. 64), “One important element in facilitating
adult learning is helping learners become aware of their own idiosyncratic
learning styles.” Learning style refers to the pattern of preferred responses a
person uses in a learning situation.
The exercises in this section provide opportunities to draw on the many
unique experiences, problems, situation, and motivations that mentors bring to
learning and to use that knowledge to promote effective learning relationships.
How the exercises will be experiences will vary according to learning style.
Being knowledgeable about the mentee’s learning style has implications
for facilitating the learning relationship. That information will assist the
mentor in knowing when to step forward and when to hold back, and how to honor
specific learning styles that help to facilitate the learning.
Following are some general guidelines that relate to most learning
styles:
Pace the learning.
The pace of the learning varies and is often interrupted by individual need.
Sometimes learners withdraw or avoid when they are uncomfortable. This
self-declared time-out is part of the learning process as well and needs to be
acknowledged.
Time the developmental intervention.
Mentors need to understand where their mentees are developmentally. They cannot
assume readiness. That is why partnership preparation is so important. Without
establishing an open and candid relationship, it is easy to make erroneous
assumptions.
Work toward collaborative learning.
Collaboration is creative work. “People labor together in order to construct
something that did not exist before the collaboration, something that does not
and cannot fully exist in the lives of the individual collaboration” (Peters and
Armstrong, 1998, p.75)
Keep focus on learning.
Mentoring is not a chemistry contest. The partners should not get hung up on
personality issues. Stick with the main attraction: learning.
Build the relationship first.
The learning will follow. Too often mentors and mentees do not make the time to
create the appropriate climate for learning.
Structure the process.
Sharing the responsibility for structuring the learning relationships (even in
an informal learning relationship) improves the quality of the interaction.
Support, Challenge, and Vision
Effective mentors use a variety of techniques to ensure that the mentee is
appropriately challenged and that there is the opportunity to capitalize on
difference learning strengths. Daloz (1999) identifies three components of an
effective mentoring relationship: support, challenge, and vision.
Support is a prerequisite for enabling mentoring relationships. Daloz
(1999) describes support as “the activity of holding, providing a
safe place where the student can
contact her need for fundamental trust” (p. 209). Mentors can preempt possible
stumbling blocks by identifying when and where they may need to provide support.
Challenge is sometimes referred to as a creative tension that seeks
resolution, a stretch opportunity, or a threat. When mentors shortcut the
learning cycle by providing answers, they shortchange the process that takes
place as mentees seek to discover their own answers by meeting the challenge
before them. Feedback is the most powerful tool for assisting learners in
meeting challenges. It provides the means for engaging in discussion, setting up
dichotomies, constructing hypotheses, and setting high standards (Daloz, 1986).
The importance of vision in mentoring is underestimated. Mentors provide
vision in a variety of ways. Role-modeling specific behaviors is one way. They
also provide the long view by reminding us of tradition and the road yet to come
into view. Because they have been there, mentors often know the coming
attractions. They also hold up the mirror of self-awareness, which results in
extending the vision of the mentee (Daloz, 1999).
Strategies for Facilitating Learning
There are specific things mentors can do to facilitate mentee learning. The five
strategies listed below are particularly useful.
Asking Questions
Asking questions causes an individual to reflect and thereby encourages
learning. Asking questions that require thoughtful answers (like those in the
exercises in this chapter) is helpful in getting mentees to articulate their own
thinking and identifying questions to stimulate thoughtful reflection. The
questions can open up a learning conversation or shut it down. Ethical
questioning is a must (staying within the bounds of role-appropriate questions).
Without it, it is easy to exceed limits of appropriateness and fairness.
What You Can Do
·
Ask questions that support and challenge – for example: “That’s a nice way of
describing the culture. How would you apply some of that thinking to the staff?”
·
Ask questions to stimulate and challenge – for example:”Could you tell a little
more about what you mean by…”
·
Allow time for thoughtful reflection – for example:”It sounds as if we’ve only
begun to scratch the surface. Let’s think about this some more and discuss if
further in our next conversation.”
Reformulating Statement
Mentors who rephrase what they have heard clarify their own understanding and
encourage the mentee to hear what is they have articulated. This offers an
opportunity for further clarification.
What You Can Do
·
Paraphrase what you heard – for example: “I think what I heard you saying was…”
·
Continue the process of rephrasing and paraphrasing until you are clear and the
mentee is no longer adding new information – for example:”My understanding is…”
Summarizing
Summarizing reinforces the learning, is a reminder of what has transpired, and
allows checking out assumptions in the process.
What You Can Do
·
Share the content of what you have heard, learned, or accomplished – for
example: “We’ve spent our time today…During that time we… As a result, we
achieved the following outcomes…”
·
Leave judgments and opinions out when you summarize.
·
Deal with the facts of the situation, not the emotions.
Listening for the Silence
Silence provides an opportunity for learning. Some individuals need time to
think quietly. Silence can also indicate confusion, boredom, or even physical
discomfort.
What You Can Do
·
Don’t be afraid of silence.
·
Encourage silence.
·
Us the silence as an opportunity for reflection –for example:”I notice that
whenever we started to talk about…you get kind of quiet. I’m wondering what that
is about.”
Listening Reflectively
So often we hear but do not really listen. When you listen reflectively, you
hear the silence, observe nonverbal responses, and hold up a mirror for the
mentee.
What you Can Do
·
Be authentic – for example:”What I’d like to see is…”
·
Clarify –for example:”What do you mean by…?
·
Provide feedback – for example:”You did a great job with that. I like the way
you…I also thought that…Next time you might try…”
Using Reflection to Facilitate Learning
The role of the mentor is to facilitate learning in such a way that the
knowledge, skills, or competencies connect to action in the present and
possibility in the future. This requires building on the learner’s expertise,
providing a conductive environment for learning, and appropriately challenging,
supporting, and providing vision or the learner.
When the mentor’s work is solidly grounded in principles of adult
learning, mentor and mentee are viewed as co-learners who both benefit and grow
from the relationship. It is a process of becoming for both partners. “In the
end it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to by
remaining what we are” (De Press, 1989, p.87). Although we want to encourage
mentees “to look, look again,” we also need to be diligent observers of the
process ourselves. The next chapter broadens our understanding of the dynamics
of the learning process by exploring the role of context and its influence in
the mentoring relationship.