GROW Questions to Use during Mentoring

Kia Ora Koutou,

 a few years ago we had Evaluation Associates talking to our school about Mentoring and growing as Mentors. This model was initially developed in the 1980s and is still very effective today.

I found this interesting as a facilitator, when I came across the acronym GROW again. Pulling out this card I thought these are great questions I could use with my mentoring of teachers who want to develop their digital skills and the classroom modelling of digital devices. It made writing the facilitation notes easy, as it was always on hand.

Goals - What do you want? Why is this important? What are you aiming to achieve? What would the ideal look like? What would happen if you did not focus on this? Why is it important? 

Reality - What have I got? What is happening now? How do you know? What evidence are you referring to? What have you tried? What else is worth exploring? How was it last term/year?

Options - What could I do?  What alternatives are there? Which options interest you? What's worth giving a go? Have you thought of...? Is the goal still relevant?

Will commit/Way forward - What are the next steps? What might get in the way? What support /planning is required? Who can help? When will you start? What are the barriers? Enablers? Time frame?

So these are questions you can ask but what might a Coaching Session look like? 

‘Goal’ questions

This first part of the session is about either helping the mentee to set a goal to work towards or reviewing progress towards an already agreed-upon goal. This goal can be a short-term or long-term goal that will be revisited over the course of many sessions, and each mentoring session helps the mentee to decide on actions to take in order to reach their long-term goal. The focus for each mentoring session is also set during the start of that session.

‘Reality’ questions

This part of the session involves discussing and examining the factors relating to achievement or non-achievement of goals. The mentor should use active listening skills to understand the mentee’s perspective by focusing on what the mentee is saying and paraphrasing them to check for understanding. During this part of the session, mentors should focus on offering a challenge (for example, by checking for alternate explanations) and seeking and using evidence to encourage the mentee to view the goal, problem, and actions from many perspectives.

‘Options’ questions

As a result of the reality discussion, the mentor and mentee identify options that the mentee could take to move towards their goals, including any tools, strategies or pedagogies they can use. These ideas can be mind-mapped to aid in the discussion. This part of the discussion is about exploring and critiquing many possibilities, with the mentor providing challenges and offering expertise where appropriate.

‘Way forward’ questions

Decide on an option the mentee will implement and set a goal. Committing to specific actions will help the mentee move towards their goal. Agree on any support the mentor will provide, such as observations, and agree on a time for the next session.

Steps taken from Questions to use during Mentoring Conversations - The Education Hub

This article also has different questions from those on the original card. My next steps are to update my card as I find the questions more informative and constructive. Reading the article again I can hear my Mentor from 2023 Anne and my current Principal asking them each time I had/have a conversation with them.