‘‘Self’ in Self’ in MentoringMentoring‘‘Self’ in Self’ in

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Mentoring CPD and Mentoring CPD and Supervision Supervision

Self and Reflection

Reflection • Boud, Cohen & Walker

(1985) Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning.

• Reflection has four main purposes.

• It helps learners to understand what they already know (An individual outcome)

• It identifies what they need to know in order to advance understanding o the subject (A contextual outcome)

• It makes sense of new information and feedback in the context of personal experience (A relational outcome)

• It guides choice for further learning (A developmental outcome)

• Therefore, reflection is a tool to learn about the self

Self• What is self?

– Freud conceptualised self as the conscious and the unconscious

– Jung, adds a third dimension and includes the collective unconscious

– Assogiliss adds a fourth dimension and incorporates ‘the spiritual’

• Self in mentoring – Understanding ‘you’; what

makes you tick; what makes you unique

Exercise One

• About You - 20 Mins– Chronologically list major

events or experiences from your life, that you feel, have made you who you are today. Think about how each has developed you. Select one of these events that has lead to self discovery.

– Why is it important to your self discovery?

– What has it taught you about yourself?

Exercise Two

• 20 Mins – Your Culture– List 5 proverbs, in order of

importance, that you have heard repeatedly in your family, extended community or society. Think about the context in which each are used

– What does this tell you about your culture?

– How has it influenced you?

Exercise Three• 40 mins – You now and

the future you– Write your obituary how it

would be today– Write your obituary how

you would like it to be– What are the differences?– What changes must occur

in your life for your obituary to be how you would like it to be?

– How are you going to make these changes?

– What aims/goals do you need to set yourself?

Exercise Four• 30 mins – Group

Discussion– Where is the place of self in

mentoring?– Consider who you are and

how that influences the relationship

– Think about your experiences and how that influences the relationship

– Discuss how your cultural background and how this impacts on mentoring.

– What does this mean about where you would place ‘self’ when mentoring another?