Learning Mentoring Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Learning Mentoring - Assignment Example In as much as adults benefit from the support and guidance of peers, friends, and supervisors, children too benefit greatly from having another person around to guide them in as they face their issues and difficulties. Children value the guidance of an adult because they look up to adults as their role models. Most of the time, children follow the footsteps of adults as they grow up. Therefore, it is vital for children to have an adult around that will guide them in their journey towards growth and development. Most people can easily identify one person who has had great influence on how they have lived their lives. The relationship that they form with this particular individual contributed greatly to how the manage their affairs. Some may find such a person in his workplace while there are those who may find such a person in school. However, in both cases, this influential person is considered a mentor. Moreover, the relationship that has been formed between the two parties may be considered as mentoring. Basically, all the scenarios described above are examples of the mentoring process. Mentoring is defined as: ..A partnership between two people built upon trust. It is a process in which the mentor offers ongoing support and developmental opportunities to the mentee. Addressing issues and blockages identified by the mentee, the mentor offers guidance, counselling and support in the form of pragmatic and objective assistance. Both share a common purpose of developing a strong two-way learning relationship (Clutterbuck, 2001). Mentoring, as shown above, can be used in several ways. Some employees have mentors that help them uplift their professional careers. Some people with problems have mentors that help them overcome their issues. Also, there is a specific type of mentoring that applies in the realm of education and learning. This is called learning mentoring. In this paper, the process of learning mentoring as well as mentoring in general will be critically analyzed. More importantly, a particular mentoring programme will be assessed and analyzed. This will be done in order to determine whether mentoring was suitable to the given situation. Also, the discussion od the said mentoring programme will help explain how the mentoring process works and how beneficial it is in a given situation. As the mentoring process is discussed, the author's experience in the menotring programme will be used to supplement the discussion. Background of the Study Learning mentoring was used to help a key stage two child (mentee). The said child has specific education needs (SEN). Particularly, she has the learning disability known as dyslexia. Also, it must be noted that the said child is the niece of the author (mentor). Dyslexia is one of the most common causes of learning difficulties. It is estimated to affect approximately 10% of the population. Unfortunately pupils struggling with disabilities such as dyslexia are labelled negatively, and teachers may not recognise it resulting in low self-esteem. The mentoring programme was undertaken over an eight-month period. The mentor and the mentee met at the former's home. This was to ensure that an environment free from distraction, away from other adult/child interaction, and motivating was given to the mentee. There was no particular schedule followed for the programme since the mentee was often at the mentor's house due to their family