The role of mentoring in supporting students’ engagement in reflective practice

Higher education puts great emphasis on developing students’ employability competences. To develop employability competences, engaging in reflective practice is important. Mentoring is known to promote reflective practice, yet empirical evidence on the relationship between mentoring and reflective practice is scarce. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring the moments, antecedents, and levels of reflective practice during a competence-based mentoring program. We
conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve students at a Dutch university using the timeline methodology. Data was analysed using a direct content analysis and inter-rater reliability was established. The findings showed that one-on-one meetings with a mentor were most important moments with providing individual reflection assignments, asking critical questions and students’ intrinsic motivation as most important antecedents to stimulate deep levels of reflection.
The current study is one of the first to explore the role of mentoring to support students’ engagement in reflective practice, and it provides mentors with concrete guidelines.