The AAUTN Mentor Scheme draws on the skills and experience of volunteer award recipients (Teaching Excellence awards). The scheme has two distinct themes:
1. Advice and support for aspiring award nominees on the development of their AAUT nominations. This may include mentors:
- providing advice on the most suitable award type based on career stage and experience (Citation, Award for Teaching Excellence etc.);
- providing guidance on structuring a narrative around the mentee’s teaching experience;
- providing advice on what teaching and education activities are worth focusing on; and
- providing feedback on the mentee’s written application.
2. Mentoring for recent recipients of the national Teaching Excellence awards. This may include mentors:
- providing a sounding board as to what opportunities to take up, and helping mentees to clarify their personal goals;
- advising on how to leverage the mentee’s raised profile from the award to effect change;
- debriefing after the high of the ceremony and managing potential negative reactions from the mentee’s colleagues to the award;
- providing encouragement and sharing experiences of negotiating changing identities; and
- brainstorming ways to engage colleagues or establish networks in a specific context.
Find a mentor
The scheme is a “self-serve” system. Mentees choose a mentor from the list and approach them by email. Please be mindful that mentors’ workloads and responsibilities will fluctuate – they may already be ‘booked’, or personal circumstances may reduce their availability.
Become a mentor
There are many benefits of becoming a mentor. The scheme provides educators with an opportunity to participate in a professional learning and teaching activity, demonstrating leadership and broadening experience and expertise.
If you’re a past AAUT recipient and are interested in becoming a mentor, please contact the Awards Team via email: aaut@rmit.edu.au
The mentoring agreement/process
We recommend that mentoring pairs discuss and complete the Mentoring Agreement at the start of the mentoring process to define a clear and shared understanding of the mentoring goals and expectations. To ensure a smooth ongoing process, please consider the following guidelines for the management of your first meeting:
- Identify the expectations and goals of the mentoring relationship and timeframe in which the goal/s or specific task/s can be achieved
- Establish the mentor’s/mentee’s roles and responsibilities
- Agree on the frequency of meetings
- Discuss and decide on the action items for the following meeting
- Establish a goal for each meeting
Feedback
As the mentor scheme is an evolving process, we invite ongoing feedback on how it’s working or could be improved. Please provide feedback via email: aaut@rmit.edu.au