A university academic mentor– mentee relationship in practice: A Northern Irish sports coaching degree

The use of Dewey’s model of ‘Active Learning’ to help the academic mentor to engage the sports coach mentee in modelling the thinking process during coaching by developing their own observational rubric. This chapter is shaped by information gathered through formal and informal mechanisms related to a work- based learning module (WBL) in an undergraduate coaching programme. The aim of the module is to give student- coaches a sense of how theory can inform their practice. In constructing the curriculum around a set of practical experiences and theoretically driven discussion groups, the aim is to develop in students an integrated knowledge base of how theory can and should be reflected in real- life coaching. In this programme, the student (sports coach mentee) constructs their own learning with the support of the academic member of staff acting as their mentor. The mentor acts as an orchestrator (Jones and Wallace, 2006 ), facilitating a positive learning environment through active engagement with assessment that has a positive impact on the learners’ (mentees) development. This is known theoretically as constructive alignment, where the learner constructs their own learning through relevant learning activities (Biggs & Tang, 2011).