Teacher Mentoring as Professional Development

What’s in it for the Instructional Coach?

Since the early 1980’s teacher mentoring programs have dramatically increased as a vehicle to support and retain new teachers. As a result researchers have come to recognize that mentors also derive substantial benefits from the mentoring experience. Instructional Coach benefits include:

Professional competency: As mentor teachers assist their protégées in improving their teaching, they also improve their own professional competency.
Reflective Practice: Mentors report that mentoring has forced them to be reflective about their own beliefs about teaching, students, learning, and teaching as a career.
Renewal: A number of researchers have reported that mentors experience professional renewal, are re-energized, and often strengthen their commitment to the teaching profession.
Collaboration: Mentors report that continued contact with mentees provides some of their richest collegial interactions.

Contributions to Teacher Leadership. Mentor training and experiences can build mentors' capacity for leadership through structured professional development including training and experience in classroom observation and coaching skills.

Source: www.principals.org ERIC Digest (ED460125), Nov 2001, Leslie Huling, Virginia Resta