In Australia, HEIs often struggle to find quality placements for their pre-service
teachers (Sinclair, Dowson & Thistleton-Martin, 2006), as not every teacher is suitable to be
a mentor. This paper argues that preparation for mentoring can assist in developing effective
mentors. Descriptions of what makes an effective mentor are well documented in the
literature. It is agreed that a quality mentor is one who understands the specific goals of
mentoring in the context in which they are working and is familiar with the tasks to be
undertaken by the mentee (Valeni & Vogrinc, 2007). It has also been identified that a quality
mentor in pre-service teacher education has both the knowledge and the competency to
mentor (Graves, 2010). Tang and Choi (2007) argue that knowing how to mentor another
involves the active construction and reconstruction of knowledge. In the context of preservice
teacher education, the mentor teacher needs the cognitive skills to not only pass on
knowledge and skills, but also to use them in context and justify them accordingly. Skills that
mentors need include communication, collaboration and evaluation, as well as problem
solving and decision making skills (Gagen & Bowie, 2005; Graves, 2010).