Mentoring Adult Learners: A Guide for Educators and Trainers

Norman Cohen provides in Mentoring Adult Learners an excellent resource for mentors and coordinators of mentoring programs for adults. He organizes the book around six "behavioral functions" of mentoring -- a helpful focus in my view for those who would like to see their mentoring efforts have significant influence on those being mentored. Cohen effectively synthesizes the research on mentoring from the fields of education and business with awareness of adults as learners and principles of interpersonal communiction. Numerous examples and practical suggestions put flesh and blood on the solid research upon which the book rests. Cohen writes with a fluid, easy-to-understand style. One-fourth of the book contains four appendices, two of which provide alternative forms of Cohen's Principles for Adult Mentoring Scale -- one for education and the other for business and government settings. The scale is for mentor self-assessment, and Cohen encourages use of the instrument for research on mentoring.Other aids for the reader include a strong reference list and a helpful name and subject index. Discovery of several distracting (and at times misleading) editorial/typographical errors was disappointing, yet not enough to diminish my appreciation for this superb book.Cohen, Norman J. (1995). Mentoring Adult Learners. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company. 208 pp. (ISBN 0-89464-850-0).