(Ward’s) Ten Principles of Effective Mentoring

Abstract

In over 40 years of doing my best to serve as a mentor to others, I have sometimes been effective and sometimes ineffective. As I gained more experience, got a little older, and learned not to let my ego do so much of the talking, I came to be a better listener, to ask better questions, and not to assume that every person who sought my advice would be able to do the same things I would do, or would even want to do them. While I have a ways to go to be a more effective mentor, what I have learned is that effective mentoring follows principles. Following Moses’ numerical lead, below I provide ten principles that summarize what I’ve learned. Under each principle, I discuss why it matters and its implications for practice. While these principles are gender neutral, in my discussions below the principles, I address some issues that may affect females and males differently.

Selected Publications

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• Bishop, M.J., T.B. Amankwatia, and W.M. Cates. 2008. Sound’s use in instructional software to enhance learning: A theory-to-practice content analysis. Educational Technology Research & Development 56: 467–486.

• Cates, W.M. 1992. Fifteen principles for designing more effective hypermedia/multimedia instructional products. Educational Technology 32(12): 5–9.

• ———. 2002. Systematic selection and implementation of graphical user interface metaphors. Computers & Education 38: 385–397.

• Cates, W.M., and R. Bruce. 2002. Conceptualizing learner support space. Educational Technology Research & Development 48(1): 85–98.

• Cates, W.M., and P.H. Mattke. 2009. Open educational resources on U.S. public history Websites: Implications for designers and developers. Educational Technology 49(1): 9–18.

• ———. 2013. Web consulting for non-academic educational missions: How instructional design offers competitive advantage. Educational Technology 53(1): 31–35.

• Cates, W.M., L. Fontana, and C. White. 1993. Designing an interactive multimedia instructional environment: The Civil War Interactive project. Journal of the Association for Learning Technologies 1(2): 5–16.

• Kulo, V., and W.M. Cates. 2014. The heart of implementation fidelity: Instructional design and intent. Educational Technology 53(2): 33–37.

• Martindale, T., W.M. Cates, and Y. Qian. 2005. Analysis of recognized Web-based educational resources. Computers in the Schools 21(3/4): 101–117.

• Ohl, T., and W.M. Cates. 1997. Applying metaphorical design principles to the World Wide Web. Educational Technology 37(6): 25–38.

• Varisco, R., and W.M. Cates. 2005. Survey of Web-based educational resources in selected U.S. art museums. First Monday 10(7). www.firstmonday.org/ISSUES/issue10_7/varisco/index.html