Mentors’ Awareness of Effective Consultation Skills in a Teaching Portfolio Workshop: A Text Mining Approach

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine mentors’ awareness of effective mentoring skills prior to and after supervisory experiences of mentees’ development of teaching portfolios. In the context of developing mentors’ communication skills and reviewing strategies during a three-day intensive workshop, six consecutive meetings were conducted. The data of the discussions and reports among 11 mentors (three novice mentors, four experienced mentors, and four supervisory mentors) were analyzed by employing a quantitative content analyses method, namely, the Tiny Text-Mining tool (TTM). In the collected textual data, 1,484 different types of words were found during the mentors’ reflections on their consultations with their mentees. The results revealed that mentors’ images included the importance of communication skills, the perceived degree of the difficulties of consultation, complex and challenging processes, and mentoring effectiveness.