Double mentoring: A process for facilitating mentorships for gifted students

Abstract

Mentorships, one of the favored procedures for meeting highly individualized needs of the gifted, will occasionally falter or fail because the student requires cognitive and affective support beyond which the mentor is prepared to provide. Double mentoring is a process for responding to this limitation of mentoring when it occurs. Double mentoring involves two mentors, an expert mentor who focuses on his or her discipline, assuring maximum academic or skill growth, and a teacher mentor who assesses and attends to the developmental needs of the student, thus maximizing the possibility of the greatest benefit accruing to all involved from the mentorship.