Collaboration and mentoring to enhance professional learning in higher education

Learning and development form a key feature of the acquisition and maintenance of expertise. Although this might be pursued as a solo activity, models of professional learning emphasise the importance and value of other people’s input as guides, mentors or coaches at all stages of a professional career. Furthermore, dialogue around learning and teaching is considered to be important for constructing meaning and professional identity and is widely and effectively used to support critical reflection on practice. This chapter offers a composite of four short pieces that describe different approaches to supporting professional learning in higher education through collaboration and mentoring. As well as providing practical examples, the approaches also reveal the two-way nature of such learning support and highlight the benefits to mentees and their mentors of this dialogic way of working.