Supervision and Mentoring Throughout the Career Journey

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Supervisors and mentors play influential roles in shaping professionals and, ultimately, the quality of health and education services. Supervision and mentoring are both essential elements for preparing future SLPs and ensuring that practitioners are certified, successful, and continue to grow professionally throughout their career journey. Supervisors and mentors guide and nurture, ensure compliance, share knowledge and values, present solutions, evaluate, and foster professional development. This interactive session explores supervisor/supervisee and mentor/mentee relationships and perspectives. It highlights the difference between supervision and mentoring, including goals and responsibilities. Participants learn to apply key strategies, techniques, and tools for pre-service students, entry level, mid-stage career, and seasoned professionals. Throughout the discussion, you will be encouraged to reflect on your own students, colleagues, and program.

Meet your instructor

Jean Blosser

Jean Blosser is passionate about creating systems that ensure school SLPs and educators can provide outcomes-based, educationally relevant services. To Jean, interprofessional collaboration is essential! As President of Creative Strategies for Special Education, she consults and provides workshops for schools, universities,…

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Chapters & learning objectives

1. Introduction: Supervision and Mentoring Throughout the Career Journey

This introduction sets the tone for the course by motivating participants to consider why supervision and mentoring are so important in the development of professionals. It invites participants to consider the influence others have on us throughout our career journey. Participants are encouraged to reflect about those individuals who have influenced them in their non-professional and professional lives. It introduces several key topics related to supervision and mentoring that will be discussed and presents the learner outcomes.

2. Supervision and Mentoring: What’s the Difference?

Supervision and mentoring: The terms are often used interchangeably; however, they differ from one another and each uniquely contributes to professionals’ career growth and development. This chapter helps participants distinguish between supervision and mentoring and establishes a foundation for understanding.

3. The Career Journey

Throughout our professional career journey, the need, intensity, and type of supervision and mentoring differs. This chapter describes four distinct career stages in the professional life cycle: Pre-Professional, Career Launch, Mid-Career, and Seasoned Professionals. It explains the type of supervision and mentoring that is most needed and helpful at that time. This discussion lays the groundwork for understanding specific supervisory and mentoring strategies and processes.

4. Pre-Service Supervision in Action

Supervision occurs in some form or another from the time students first enter the university, through their pre-service clinical training, into their first year of practice, and on throughout their employment. Supervisors’ roles and responsibilities vary with each stage, setting, and situation as does the supervisor/supervisee relationship. Some supervision is very frequent and direct while in other situations, the supervisor’s interactions are more indirect. This chapter discusses supervision in terms of career stage, goals, responsibilities, typical approaches, barriers to avoid or resolve, and tips for success.

5. Supervising Practicing Professionals

This chapter presents models of supervision for specific types of career stages. Similarities, differences, and unique aspects will become clear during the discussion. Practical applications for supervision and scenarios are shared.

6. Effective Mentoring in Each Career Stage

Every professional is supervised during their pursuit and practice of their profession. However, not every professional enjoys the benefits of a mentor who can guide them to achieve new heights or reach for the stars. The mentor and mentee form an interactive relationship that is dynamic and changes over time as the mentee gains in confidence, skills, expertise, and independence. The “magic” of mentoring is powerful when used to guide career development, nurture professional skills, build teams, and/or engage colleagues, families, and teachers in service delivery. The “secret” of mentoring lies in the strategies used to build positive mentor partnerships that are relevant to the specific situation and career stage. This chapter reinforces the differences between supervision and mentoring. It explores the mentoring relationships at each stage and perspectives that may evolve as professionals traverse their careers. Six mentoring techniques are presented.

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