Paper Title
Group Mentoring for Professional Development in Higher Education: An Analysis of two Case Studies and its Prospects in Bangladesh
Kamrul Hasan
Mentoring is an effective medium to guide, support and facilitate the learning of an individual. Group mentoring, also known as "mentorship circles”, is a mentoring process where a group of experienced personnel guides one or a group of apprentices for professional development. Like traditional mentoring, it is also a powerful tool for professional development. There are numerous examples of successful implementation of group mentoring in higher educational institutions all over the world. The higher educational institutions in Bangladesh require professionally skilled teaching staff but official mentoring programmes are absent. In this circumstance, group mentoring can be a possible way to transform higher education as it can train multiple persons at the same time with a limited number of mentors. Moreover, it is less time-consuming and costs less than other professional training or mentorship programmes. Considering all these things, this paper defines group mentoring, discusses its effectiveness and challenges with the examples of two case studies and shows how far higher educational institutions in Bangladesh can be benefitted by implementing it.
Mentoring, Group Mentoring, Mentoring Circles, Professional Development, Higher Education