Partners in Teaching Excellence: A Model for Transformative Mentoring

by Cynthia Martin
Community College of Denver

Most college mentoring programs are designed to induct Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and new faculty into the culture of an institution. Typically these mentor programs involve a hierarchical relationship between a senior faculty and a graduate student or new hire, in which the senior faculty acts as sponsor or “wise one” who socializes the new faculty (St. Clair, 1994; Myers, 1995; Bower, Diehr, Morzinski, & Simpson, 1998), provides career development (St. Clair, 1994), or simply helps the new teacher “cope” (Millinger, 2004). Stephen Wilhoit (2003) explains that a faculty mentor:

will likely watch [the GTA] teach class and offer advice, review a set of papers [he/she has] evaluated to check on . . . grading standards and procedures, and examine the assignments and tests [the GTA] prepare[s]. (p. 12)

At the Community College of Denver, we believe that all teachers-from those with experience to those in training-benefit from on-going critical reflection on classroom practice and student learning. Going beyond these traditional models of mentoring, we seek to improve teaching practice for both the new teacher and the mentor. Our experienced faculty mentors co-participate with new teachers in the process of learning and growth based on the assumption that the experienced teacher has as much to discover as the new teacher does.

In Transformative Mentoring, mentors and their protégées collaborate in on-going critical self-reflection about teaching practice and student learning with the intent to uncover personal assumptions, examine beliefs, and improve practice. This program is based on Brookfield’s (1995, 2004) model for teacher critical self-reflection and Mezirow’s (1991) theory of transformative learning.

Brookfield states that “the critically reflective process happens when teachers discover and examine their assumptions by viewing their practice through [four] distinct, though interconnecting, lenses” (1995, p. xiii)”: autobiographical reflection; students’ perceptions; colleagues’ perceptions; and scholarship in teaching. Our teachers apply these lenses to their perceptions and beliefs about students and learning, and from this reflective work, attempt to transform thinking and practice.

Transformative learning, according to Mezirow, is “learning that change[s] . . . meaning perspectives or basic ways of looking at the world” (1991, p. xvii). He explains that “reflective learning involves assessment or reassessment of assumptions. Reflective learning becomes transformative whenever assumptions or premises are found to be distorting, inauthentic, or otherwise invalid” (6). Based upon Mezirow’s ideas, then, our participants help each other examine the assumptions that underlie their actions and beliefs, question how these assumptions might affect student learning, identify and explore alternative sets of assumptions, and then continue to test the validity of these new assumptions through reflective dialogue.

CCD’s Transformative Mentor Program

CCD’s faculty development program, the Teaching and Learning Center, provides a teacher facilitator who sets up formal meetings, provides support and materials, and leads three mentoring workshops during the semester. Before the semester begins, mentors and protégées work individually on Brookfield’s personal inventories. Then, during the first week of the semester, the full group meets to get acquainted, discuss goals for the program, and share reflective inventories. During this meeting, mentors and protégées work together and then share with the larger group. Each mentor/protégée team creates a semester Action Plan that focuses on the semester’s work: journaling, collecting feedback, and researching pertinent scholarship. Each teacher must focus on at least one assumption in his/her teaching practice that he/she wants to critically assess, and through self-discovery, seek to transform some understanding about student learning or teaching practice.

By mid-semester, each mentor and protégée team has observed each other teach and has been meeting on a regular basis to discuss their autobiographical notes and student feedback. The mid-semester meeting allows teams to share with the full group their personal discoveries, as well as to identify problems ahead and to adjust timelines and activities. By the end of the second meeting, each team leaves with an amended schedule (if necessary) and a recommitment to the process.

Prior to the final meeting, each team meets to discuss the semester’s work and outcomes. During the final meeting, then, all groups report on their critical reflection process, discoveries that were made and assumptions that were changed. Most important for the final meeting is that teams discuss transformations-changes in thinking or discoveries made-and how these transformations will inform practice.

Excerpts from follow-up interviews with a mentors and protégées

Questions for Consideration

• What experiences have you had as a mentor, formally or informally?
• What experiences have you had as a protégée?
• What did you learn from in these roles?
• How might an experienced faculty member feel about disclosing his/her teaching uncertainties to a GTA?
• How could a GTA help an experienced faculty with her/his teaching?
• What advice would you give to a mentor working with a new composition teacher?
• What should a mentor expect from her or his relationship with a new teacher?
• What expectations should a protégée expect from a mentor?
• What are the characteristics of a good mentor?
• What goals should a mentoring program have?
• What incentives should a college offer its mentors for participating in a mentoring partnership?
• How would you assess the effectiveness of a mentoring relationship?
• Do you believe students should be aware that their teachers are working with a mentor? What would be the benefits or disadvantages of students knowing?
• What kind of training would be necessary for mentors?
• What process would you use for matching mentors with a protégée?