How important is mentoring in education?

¹ Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Department for Teacher Training, 34 Calea Dumbravii, Sibiu, Romania
² Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Department of Industrial Machines and Equipment, 4 Emil Cioran, Sibiu, Romania
³ Krakowskie Centrum Zarzadzania i Administracji Sp. z o.o. 31-157 Krakow, Plac Matejki 10/3, Poland

^* Corresponding author: carmen.duse@ulbsibiu.ro

Abstract

The paper aims to provide the mentoring experience made in Romanian schools, developed as a result of the Erasmus + project entitled “Mentoring Between teachers from secondary and high schools” project No. 2014-1-PL01-KA200-003335. Thus, we seek to present the work and the general considerations in connection with the mentoring theme, how we decided on the curriculum in order to form mentors, how mentors were selected and what was the result of their mentoring work. It is important to observe the main obstacles in the mentoring process were and how these problems could be solved. We will also highlight the impact of the mentoring activity on mentees and their perceptions about the usefulness of such activities. The project design and the activities undertaken are the results of research and brainstorming made by teams of specialists who participated in the project and are conceived by university professors and researchers from Poland (project coordinator), Portugal, Spain, Greece and Turkey and also Romania. The teachers involved in the project were from the secondary and high schools from the Counties of Sibiu, Brasov, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi. We thought the geographical dispersion will be very useful to establish comparative elements between the involved schools.