The current move to school-based mentoring offers the possibility of considerable improvement over traditional arrangements for initial teacher preparation. But this opportunity will only be realized if old assumptions about theory and practice are modified and new practices based on a better understanding of ways in which effective teaching may be acquired. Starting from the assumption that practising teachers already possess many resources relevant to mentoring, Understanding Mentoring offers practical strategies and programmes for mentoring in the context of recent work on intelligent skill development, professional thinking and learning, counselling and helping strategies, and the nature and assessment of teaching competence. It should therefore be a useful resource for teachers taking on a mentoring role, and for those engaged in training and academic courses on school-based teacher education.