Markey, Declan (2024) The College Connect: How-to-guide to Group Mentoring. Project Report. Maynooth University.

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Abstract

Séamus Heaney once wrote that poetry is the art of giving tongue to other people’s silence. Used wisely, this Guide will help people give voice to their strengths and sustenance to their spirits. Early in the guide the word osmosis appears. This reminds me that oftentimes change can and does happen in quiet and hidden ways. The cumulative effect of reflection on experience, honest conversations, attentive listening, trial and error, building relationships, testing world views are all elements in this osmosis. Something is quietly working away under the surface and suddenly we discover that we are changed and the way we look at ourselves and others has changed. We look at the world differently and see all sorts of possibilities for change. The Guide encourages the creation of a learning community where all contribute and all receive. Everyone matters. The processes outlined suggest that no one knows it all and no one knows nothing. Everyone’s experience is valued and respected and knowledge from beyond the group is used to validate and challenge existing perspectives. The pioneering social psychologist Kurt Lewin is credited with coining the term Group Dynamics. He did not coin the phrase Group Mechanics. The Guide honours that insight by providing sufficient structure and direction as well as encouraging spontaneity, emergence, the creation of new knowledge and multiple possibilities. The Guide does not pretend that democratic, collaborative learning is a predictable, linear process with predetermined outcomes. This kind of learning can be challenging, exciting, surprising and unpredictable.

Item Type:	Monograph (Project Report)
Keywords:	College Connect; How-to-guide; Group Mentoring;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Adult and Community Education
Item ID:	18458
Depositing User:	Declan Markey
Date Deposited:	01 May 2024 10:07
Publisher:	Maynooth University
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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