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Standard 6: Mentor Professional Development

Mentor professional development provides a formal orientation and foundational mentor training before they begin their work with beginning teachers and should continue over the course of the mentor’s work with beginning teachers. Mentors have time, supported by the program, to engage in this mentor learning community and are consistently supported in their efforts to assist beginning teachers in their development, with a focus on student learning.

Once mentors have been selected, it is important to consider how to develop their knowledge, skills, and dispositions towards mentoring. Even excellent teachers require training to become excellent mentors: Coaching beginning teachers is not an innate skill. In effective induction/mentoring programs, leaders and stakeholders collaborate in the planning and delivery of essential foundational training.

It is also important to develop a professional learning community for mentors for the purpose of reflection, improvement and refinement of practice, and ongoing professional development to advance induction practice by mentors. Ongoing professional development is based on mentor needs, research on effective mentoring, and individual program priorities.

The Standard 6 Subsections address the following issues:

In reviewing Standard 6, consider the following questions:

  • What foundational training is essential for all mentors to receive?
  • How can a professional learning community benefit mentors?
  • What factors influence ongoing professional development for mentors?

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