Duration: 11m30s

Hi everybody, I'm Kay Schlesinger from KG Edconsulting. As part of AUSMASA's VET Resource Hub, this video is going to look at the power of mentoring, coaching and connection. So let's begin together. 

 One of the 10 high impact teaching strategies that's known to make the most difference to learning is a learning intention. And this was researched by John Hattie and others. Our learning intention today: we are learning about the power of mentoring by connecting educators and the difference between mentoring and coaching within the automotive and mining sectors. 

 An overview of our session together today, we're going to investigate 4 areas.  

What does mentoring offer? The difference between mentoring and coaching, connecting educators and reflection questions. 

 So, let's start with topic one: What does mentoring offer? Perhaps one of the most important things that mentoring gives us all is the notion of time. And we all know that in busy workplaces, in the automotive and mining sectors, time is of the essence.

We are continually busy doing things. So mentoring offers us that really important time out of our normal roles to spend with our mentor or our mentee. In other words, it gives us scheduled opportunities to meet and share ideas and observe and share teaching practice. 
 
Mentoring offers the mentee an array of advantages. It offers the chance to learn from the experiences of others who have been down the journey before in the workplace. It's an opportunity really importantly to hear words of encouragement.

You would be surprised in the workplace how seldom this happens in some organisations. A person with whom you can be honest. The ability to grow your network professionally and gain feedback and guidance around your teaching, and also the opportunity to observe an experienced educator in action to see the way that they undertake teaching and learning. 

 And then conversely, mentoring offers the mentor a number of benefits. It's a chance to discover new ideas and current skills from people perhaps who might be recently qualified. It can increase personal perspective and insights into the industries. 
It can also be a preparatory step for leadership, which is really important in organisations in that there's a contingency for continued development of leaders. It offers, of course, professional growth and opportunities for reflection. 

 Let's have a look at topic 2, the difference between mentoring and coaching. This is really important for us to understand the language and the implications of the two approaches. 

 So let's look at coaching first. Coaching is normally undertaken within a defined time frame. It might be, for example, a 10-week period. The coachee drives the entire relationship by setting the focus, choosing the areas for investigating, and leading, if you like, the conversations.

The coachee sets the goals, so what will be achieved in this coaching series. And the process is pretty much a conversation so the coachee can work things out for themselves, with the guide on the side as the coach. So the purpose here is to help the coachee understand themselves, and their purpose. 

 When we look at mentoring, the focus of this video series, it's usually a longer term process. It's aimed at developing the capabilities of both people, and this 'longer-term process is shared and driven by the mentee and the mentor together in a partnership. So both people offer insights and ideas, and both people share ideas around teaching and learning. 

 So, if we summarise... Coaches act as short-term guides on the side, directed by the focus of the coachee, whereas mentors partner with mentees for a longer time frame to exchange experiences, connections, skills and insights. So I think that the main difference we're seeing there is who drives the process. In coaching, the coachee drives the process. In mentoring, there is a shared driving between the mentor and the mentee. 

Or if we put this another way, if you're in a new role and you're looking for someone who's been there themselves previously to show you the journey, then you would be best placed with a mentor. If you have new responsibilities and you would like someone to create the space and place for you to think issues through and consider the impact of your actions, a coach would be most appropriate.  

 Topic 3 looks at connecting educators. 
So we can connect educators through mentoring. Mentors have that incredible knowledge and skills. And we know from our experience in life that good shared conversations actually connect people. So we develop shared skills to connect educators and that wisdom then is shared through experience. 

Susan Francisco has done a huge amount of research about support for new educators, and she believes that mentoring has been found to be a valuable support for educators. And she talks about that important trellis of practices that support learning. I always have the image in my mind of plants growing up a trellis and the trellis supporting the plants. And for me, that's also a really good image of mentoring.  

 In some overseas research I undertook around new educators, Kimberly Grant  from the University of Calgary in Canada, said that bringing educators together is the most important thing the organization does, connecting people. And that is the very essence of mentoring, the connection of two people.

This is from one of the pieces that I actually wrote in a report from my overseas research around empowering new educators, and in our case, mentees. A mentor is vital to a new educator. 

The person should be a confidential and positive support in providing guidance and should be attuned to the new teaching experience without presumption. The role is essentially, how can I help? If you're interested in that report, it's called Connecting New Educators, A Strategy for Empowerment. 
and it was published in 2022.

This notion of synergy is really interesting as well. And Senge tells us that collectively we can be more insightful, more intelligent than we can possibly be individually. And I think Peter Senge there has really captured the essence of mentoring in that it offers us a shared intelligence and shared insight. 
We're now up to topic 4, which are our reflection questions.

Today, I've taken the ideas of Monet and I've applied them to education in the mining and auto sectors, so I hope it's not too much of a large stretch. I don't think so. It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly tells Monet.

Our reflection questions for today.  

What are some of the benefits that mentoring offers? 

What are two main differences between mentoring and coaching?  

Why is the power of connection so important to the new educators in the automotive and mining sector? 
How does the connection of educators improve both skills and knowledge?

We've covered 4 areas today. What does mentoring offer? The difference between mentoring and coaching, connecting educators and reflection questions. 

Our learning intention today. We've been learning about the power of mentoring by connecting educators and the differences between mentoring and coaching within the automotive and mining sectors. 

 And that brings us to the end of this video. If you would like to keep building your understanding of mentoring, you can watch the other videos in the series and explore more resources available in the AUSMASA VET Resource Hub. Thanks for joining today. 

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