Enhancing Professional Development through Mentoring

Abiddin, Norhasni Zainal
Suandi, Turiman

EDUCARE
Vol 2, No 1 (2009)

ABSTRACT: Mentoring is a part of educational training to develop people in the professions. Mentoring is related to self-development, professional growth and career development of the mentee. Not only do mentors have to play their role but the mentees too, and all this must be placed within the specific institutional context. The mentoring relationship has been described as an invaluable learning activity for beginners as well as experienced practitioners such as teachers, administrators, managers and other professionals. This article is designed to summarize existing literature on mentoring in order to assist mentors-mentees in enhancing the best practices for effective mentoring. Thus, it focuses on mentoring theories, the role of mentor and the nature of the mentor-mentee and its relationship. There are many views of the role of a mentor, but all include verbs like support, guide and facilitate. There are many models of mentoring. The selection of the best suited model should be based on the student’s needs and organisational contexts. The models discussed in this article includes: (1) the Counselling Model for Effective Helping; (2) the Competence-Based Model and the Mentor as Trainer; (3) the Furlong and Maynard Model of Mentoring; (4) the Reflective Practitioner Model; and (5) the True and Pseudo Mentoring Relationship. KEY WORDS: mentoring, mentor, mentee, professional development, relationship and models of mentoring.  About the Authors: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Norhasni Zainal Abiddin is a Lecturer at the Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education, Faculty of Educational Studies UPM (University of Putra Malaysia); and Prof. Dr. Turiman Suandi is also a Lecturer at the same Department of UPM, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. They can be reached at: [e-mail] and [e-mail] to cite this article? Abiddin, Norhasni Zainal & Turiman Suandi. (2009). “Enhancing Professional Development through Mentoring” in EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, Vol.2(1) August, pp.93-106. Bandung, Indonesia: Minda Masagi Press owned by ASPENSI in Bandung, West Java; and FKIP UMP in Purwokerto, Central Java, ISSN 1979-7877.Chronicle of the article: Accepted (June 1, 2009); Revised (July 3, 2009); and Published (August 17, 2009).