Would you make a good mentor or coach? With these approaches forming a core part of professional development and support in schools, John Dabell looks at what makes for effective practice

Some people make great coaches but lousy mentors. Some make marvellous mentors but crummy coaches. Some rare souls manage to pull off both along with being a role model, catalyst, change agent and critical friend.

In their excellent book, Educational Leadership Simplified (2018), Bob Bates and Andy Bailey draw some important distinctions between different roles using a “learning to drive” analogy. They say that:

Some see coaching and mentoring as one and the same thing but they aren’t. Coaching and mentoring are suited to different professional development needs. Put simply, mentors are usually experienced professionals who share knowledge and experience with a less experienced person and coaches are professionals who focus more on helping someone to develop specific skills.

Register now, read forever

Thank you for visiting SecEd and reading some of our content for professionals in secondary education. Register now for free to get unlimited access to all content.

What's included:

  • Unlimited access to news, best practice articles and podcast

  • New content and e-bulletins delivered straight to your inbox every Monday and Thursday

Register

Already have an account? Sign in here