Mentoring as a learning experience for adults

How and why do adults learn? This topic has been the focus of increased attention recently in the literature, and, as is true with many complex and important questions, it is difficult to come up with neat and concise answers. One way adults learn is through mentoring. Lester (1981) points out that mentoring is a basic form of education for human development because it provides a wholistic, yet individualized, approach to learning. Adults who work with mentors grow in their own sense of intellectual competence, as well as in their sense of purpose, their feelings of autonomy, and their personal integrity. Mentoring is also a good example of experiential learning, that is, learning resulting from or associated with ex-perience. The concept of mentoring is an ancient one. The idea o