Project Updates Feb 2019
Good Practice Principles
Masterclasses
Directory
Good Practice Principles
The P4P Good Practice Group (Lynn, Dawn, Sally, Liz) meets between P4P meetings to work though some of the points raised by the larger group in relation to P4P Good Practice. We report at each meeting on what we have been up to and ask for input.
As you know, we have moved from Good Practice (i.e., a way of doing things) to focus on the underlying values of Good Practice (i.e., what underpins our student peer mentoring). After working through various lists of Good Practice statements/principles in P4P meetings, we started to see the core underlying values emerge as:
1. Mentoring is learning. The learning resource is the conversation Shared learning is at the heart of mentoring through dialogue, discovery, modelling. It uses connectedness and relationships to create spaces that allow learning to flourish between people.
2. Spaces that allow learning to happen are the discovery, or dance, between the learners. This dance can only happen if the learners all let go of their fixed ideas or answers. It’s about betweenness. Let go of assumptions, fixed ideas, assumed answers.
3. Learning is a process of growth. It is integrated and absorbed by practicing with different mediums, being actively engaged, looking at what it is and comparing it to what it is not, looking at different angles, making meaning and links, not just remembering bits. We are often learning things that we are not aware of and were not intending to learn.
4. The process of learning is dynamic: Ideas and learning emerge and evolve. Learning is not something that is done to someone but is an interplay of giving, taking, listening, speaking, thinking, questioning, challenging and revising perspectives to bring forth clarity.
5. Clarity is not a concrete, fixed state but the moment of acceptance of an idea, opinion or fact so that it becomes a part of you, fitting in with, and often re-shaping, all your other ideas, opinions, knowledge, etc.
6. The strength is the letting go of fixed ideas, answers and preconceptions so that the learning space can open a path for ideas, answers, questions, arguments, etc. to take form and show themselves.
We believe that the purpose of having P4P Good Practice is to connect our community by making explicit the underlying assumptions that we share about what our mentoring is and what it is not. Community members are welcome to comment on the current six Good Practice points, which can be explored further if relevant to the community.
Masterclasses
A form to be sent to student mentors to gauge their interest in the format, topics and timing for a Masterclass is now available here: https://goo.gl/forms/ABpGHd7SZHRoGjYA3.
If you have any suggestions for topics or ideas to contribute to the Masterclass project please get in contact with Ros: [email protected]
Directories
We have received submissions from Deakin College, University of Tasmania, Monash University, Deakin University, The University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, RMIT and Victoria University so will commence the analysis of the results. These will be compiled into a high-level report, which will then be available to Victoria-Tasmania Peers4Peers members.
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