Dr.Gray, now residing in British Columbia, is a graduate of the University of Texas. He is currentlyinvolved in the further development of online mentoring programs for school districts that have been extremely effective in business and industry. Using these same mentoring principles, his program can be effectively transferred to the public school leaders. In this interview he relates his background in education and explains how mentoring can have powerful results for improving leadership skills and caneasily be accessed through his online program .

Tell our readers something about yourself.

I've always loved learning, and realized that I could do this continuously by becoming a professor of psychology.

Why psychology?

I wanted to understand how people learn, think, and grow to fulfill their potential.When I realized that I wanted to be a professor working with future teachers, I focused on educational psychology, earning a MA from the University of Virginia and a PhD from the University of Texas. Ed psych allowed me to teach a variety of courses at the University of British Columbia from 1970 to 1985.

Being a professor is not an easy task in education. What significant contribution doyou believe you made as a professor?

When open area (open space, open plan) schools were being built in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but teachers were not being properly prepared to team teach in them, I wrote two proposals to get grant money to start the first-ever Open Area Teacher Preparation Program (1971-1976) to prepare team teachers for this new kind of education.I led the faculty team in planning how we would team teach eight courses and supervise our students during an extended practicum where they would team teach students in grades 4-7.This ensured that students who needed more or less structure got it, so everyone learned and their standardized test scores were the best in that school district.

You have an interesting history in education. Anything else you would like to add?

In the 1970s, teachers were implementing Joseph Renzulli's Enrichment Triad Model for gifted/talented students and when they encountered problems providing individual assistance for each Independent Project that was part of this model.I helped originate the concept of Mentor-Assisted Enrichment Projects (described in Educational Leadership, Nov 1982, pages 16-21).My wife (Marilynne) soon joined me in this effort, to expand MAEPs to include ESL and At-Risk Youth.School districts across North America asked us to help them implement MAEPs because of the many benefits gained by young proteges (e.g., learning about career possibilities and realities; developing English facility; staying in school) and by their mentors.

Problem solving has been amajor focus for you. Could you say more about your interest along those lines.

The biggest problem that was solved at U British Columbia was how to prevent the dropout of beginning teachers after their first high school practicum.Historically, future high school teachers took a 1-hr course for 13 weeks to prepare for student teaching an entire class.Because they could not learn enough about classroom management and how to teach, 20-30% dropped out each semesterOur prior research revealed that mentoring or tutoring a few students enabled future teachers to progress through Frances Fuller's 3 Stages of Concern like no other method ever has – and to become concerned for individual learners.Dr. Fuller found that Stage 1 focuses on oneself:Do I know my subject well enough to teach it?Can I maintain class discipline?In Stage 2, the focus shifts to "them" (the group being taught).In Stage 3, the concern is: How is what I'm doing affecting individual learners?Dr. Fuller and others repeatedly found that virtually no student teachers on any practicum and very few first year teachers reach Stage 3.All of our mentors and tutors reached Stage 3 on their modified initial practicum– and this also occurred when they did their end-of-year practicum while teaching entire classes.Our practicum modification virtually eliminated dropout by enabling our beginning student teachers to be successful and feel like they made a difference in the lives of individual learners.

Both you and your wife have created many worthwhile projects at University of British Columbia; why did you change careers in 1986?

We both saw the many benefits from mentoring, and wanted to develop formalized mentoring programs full-time for students, beginning teachers and principals, college students and faculty, so we started a business to do this.Unfortunately, after two years we realized that our new business could not survive unless we sought out corporate clients.This enabled us to combine two paradigms: the educational paradigm that emphasizes process (try different methods – of teaching, discipline, evaluation) and the corporate paradigm that emphasizes results.Our mentoring programs have been highly successful in benefiting proteges, mentors and the sponsoring organization – and our coaching programs have produced multiple benefits – because we make sure the right processes are used to produce desired outcomes.

What do you believe has been your major contribution to mentoring as we now know more about the value of the practice in the last several decades?

I developed a Mentoring Style Indicator for new teachers, and one for new principals to assess the style of mentoring the mentor likes to provide and the protégé likes to receive, so that mentoring partners can work better together. There is a definite transfer of this knowledge for aspiring school leaders.

The four Mentoring Styles that I discovered through research (from 1978-80). The Informational and Guiding Styles equip the protégé with what the mentor knows (advice, wise counsel, guidance) like mentors have always done – to help proteges learn the ropes and the tricks of the trade, get up to speed faster, and become more competent.The Collaborative and Confirming Styles empower what the protégé wants to do and become – so they better utilize their uniqueness, diversity, and creativity to make significant contributions.

You have worked in the area of coaching. What do you see as your major contribution to coaching?

After reviewing the research on best practices in learning, coaching, teaching and training, I developed a Systematic 5-Step Coaching Model for learning a specific skill to a mastery level.In Step 1, the coach describes the skill to be learned, why this is important, how it will be used – because people learn by listening.In Step 2, the coach demonstrates the skill or behavioral modeling is provided -- because people learn by seeing.In Step 3, the coach and learner use the skill together (similar to what apprentices do) – because people learn by doing.In Step 4, the learner practices the skill and gets feedback from the coach – while continuing to learn by doing.Some Steps might be repeated or done differently until the learner has mastered the skill in Step 5 – and can apply this skill competently and confidently on his/her own.

We've developed over 150 different mentoring and coaching programs that produced intendedoutcomes.The U. S. Department of Labor's Dictionary of Occupational Titles proclaims that "mentoring is the most complex type of human interaction" because mentors provide so many different kinds of assistance. Our website has a White Paper on this.

How does yourmentoring/coaching transfer from business and industryto the public school systems?

Colaboro's Tools , On-Line can support whatever program is already operating. It reduces overall coordination time by 80% while managing the entire process.It produces success in multiple ways:(1) by matching best-fit partners on Needs/Expertise, Demographics and Compatibility, (2) by providing online training to learn how to work together, (3) by providing online Mentoring Action Plans for achieving complex goals over time and online Coaching Plans to ensure skill mastery, and (4) by documenting results through online surveys and completed Plans.Colaboro can even support quick Knowledge Transfer by connecting knowledge providers and seekers, when they do not have time to form a long-term mentoring partnership. For example, future principals of high-need schools need different mentoring and coaching than principals of high-achieving schools. We believe school districts nationally could benefit from my research.

10.This appears to be a real value added program for school districts.Where can readers learn more?

Our website (http://www.mentoring-solutions.com) contains White Papers, published articles and other information on what I've said previously.Marilynne and I are always available to dialogue with readers who phone us (toll-free at 877-955-0314 or 250-652-0324).Using webinar technology, I can show a Demo of Colaboro no matter where readers are located.

Published October 1, 2008