ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes mentor strategies before considering skills separately. It considers how far a mentor’s capacity to deploy appropriate strategies and skills was dependent on their personal qualities. Since the professional dimension predominated within the mentor’s role, the range of strategies within it was complex. The purpose of trainer strategies was to use action and talk to help students deal with a specific situation. The learning implications of some strategies depended on the context, the mentor’s purpose or the student, rather than on the intrinsic nature of the strategies. Educator strategies were those whose intentions were to reduce student dependence on support and advice and develop their capacity to think for themselves. The nature of planning, negotiating and organizing skills has been exemplified when discussing their corresponding strategies. Mentors interpersonal skills had some influence on their capacity to negotiate helpful arrangements for students’ school experience within the structural dimension of their role.
