Observe, Reflect, and Apply: Ways to Successfully Mentor Early Childhood Educators
Inspiring an early childhood teacher to explore new ideas that promote young children’s development and learning is one of the great rewards of being a teacher educator, coach, or mentor. Yet the goal of the mentoring
process—to connect effective strategies to a teacher’s actual interactions with young children—requires more than just providing inspiration and sharing knowledge. The broadest and oldest term for ongoing guidance to support professional development is mentor. Mentoring is: “a relationship-based process between colleagues in similar professional roles, with a more experienced individual with adult learning knowledge and skills, the mentor, providing guidance and example to the less-experienced protégé or mentee. Mentoring is intended to increase an individual’s personal or professional capacity, resulting in greater professional effectiveness.” (Lutton, 2012, p. 84; NAEYC & NACCRRA, 2011, p. 10)
