8 Summary
By now, you should have a better understanding of how mentoring works, its history and its processes.
You should now be able to:
- describe the various phases of a mentoring relationship
- recognise the benefits of mentoring
- identify some of the misconceptions about mentoring.
Reflection
Use the box below to note down any actions you will take as a result of what you have learned this week. This will be useful when you come to Week 8, reflecting on what you have learned over the whole of the course and planning your next steps, but you can also use it to check on your progress at any point.
Next week, you’ll focus more specifically on how to make mentoring work for you, looking at different mentoring techniques, identifying and setting clear objectives, and finding the right mentor.
You’ll also learn how you can become a mentor. This might be something that interests you personally, but if not, understanding the process that potential mentors have gone through will bring useful insight.
You are now half way through the course. The Open University would really appreciate your feedback and suggestions for future improvement in our optional end-of-course survey [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , which you will also have an opportunity to complete at the end of Week 8. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.
You can now go to Week 5.