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Book Review: Mentoring Adult Learners: A Guide for Educators and Trainers

Although the literature on mentoring has proliferated over the last 20 years, there is no final word on what mentoring is, how to do it, nor what it does. Cohen's Mentoring Adult Learners is a far cry from the final word and a rather unconvincing treatise on the subject of mentoring. Cohen's purpose is to give guidance to those who undertake the role of mentor. The objectives include relating the mentoring research base to theory and practice, linking the fields of adult psychology and interpersonal communication to the practice of mentoring, providing a behavioral self-assessment instrument for improving mentoring, and guiding those who plan and operate mentoring programs. On the surface, these are reasonable objectives for anyone interested in or involved in mentoring. More deeply, however, Cohen fails to fulfill these objectives objectively and scientifically. The first chapter ofMentoring Adult Learners is devoted to defining mentoring, listing the six roles of a mentor (establishing a trusting relationship, offering advice, introducing alternatives, challenging, motivating, and encouraging initiatives), clarifying the differences between a mentor and other helping professionals, and describing a few aspects of the mentoring process such as the importance of the mentee's readiness, the transactional nature of mentoring, and the developmental phases of mentoring. The second chapter explores Cohen's behavioral self-assessment instrument and its inherent tie to the mentoring roles. Several appendices complete the presentation of the behavioral self-assessment instrument. The next six chapters give directions on how to execute the mentoring roles. A final chapter provides information on planning and operating a program. The main problem with Mentoring Adult Learners is tied directly to Cohen's first objective, which is to relate research to mentoring. For example, on page three, Cohen touts the value of mentoring and, more specifically, quotes Jacobi (1991) when he states that mentoring "is viewed as a powerful influence in promoting 'retention and enrichment' (Jacobi, 1991, p. 505) in postsecondary educational settings" (p. 4). Jacobi, however, was actually making a contradictory statement: The concept of mentoring lacks an operational definition, which clouds