Coaching is short term focused in building a relationship with someone else. It is structured and formal in nature, thus impartial with a focus on improving behaviour. Usually a coach listens and challenges another person to help them decide for themselves how they will move from a current behaviour to a future behaviour or set of behaviours. As such questions such as “What is happening now’’ rather than Why is something happing now, will be used. A coach usually has implied or an actual level of authority due to their position.
Mentoring, on the other hand, is about developing a long term relationship with the aim of building confidence, developing resilience and character and raising aspirations rather than developing specific academic skills or knowledge. Such a relationship is built on mutual trust and respect. In a supervision context this would require that the supervisor is regarded as being a ‘’nurturing knowledgeable friend’’ who is a role model, providing emotional, psychological and moral support to the student. However, it will be important to establish boundaries in this reciprocal relationship and that the student does not become too dependent on the supervisor. How much responsibility should the student and supervisor accept in this relationship. If the student takes not or little responsibility then the reciprocity in the relationship will become dysfunctions. On such a relationship the supervisor will ensure that the student is aware of the University’s academic requirements, funding opportunities, any other support (such as one-on-one support or psychological support) and the needs of the student. As a mentor the supervisor provides advice and guidance. Mentoring is integral in the emancipation dimension or approach of supervision in which the supervisor will require the student to be reflective and grow and develop from being dependent to independence in the supervision process.
To summarise. In the supervision process there are times that coaching and mentoring will be necessary. The extent to which this will take place will depend on the student as well as the stage in the supervision process.
