USING ROLE PLAYS IN MENTOR TRAINING
Why Use Role Plays?
Role playing is a method of acting out an imaginary, but realistic, situation. A situation is described to one or
more role players who enact the roles according to how they think it would feel to be in that situation. Role
playing is an excellent strategy to use in mentor training when you want mentors to:

Put themselves in another person’s shoes so they can try to understand what the other person is thinking
and how she is feeling;

Try out new ways of communicating with or relating to a mentee;

Take risks with new ways of communicating with a mentee in a safe situation without fear of failure or
negative consequences.
How to Use Role Plays in Mentor Training
Role playing typically proceeds as follows:
1.
The training facilitator briefly describes a situation.
2.
Training participants volunteer to participate in the role play. (This may take some encouragement on
the part of the facilitator.)
3.
The facilitator gives the role players instructions. The role players need to understand the important
elements of the scene: who, what, where, and when.
4.
The facilitator instructs the role players to begin the scene.
5.
The facilitator stops the role play when the situation is resolved or when it becomes stalemated or
repetitive.
6.
The facilitator asks the role players how they felt in their roles. (This gives them a chance to comment on
their performance before they hear others’ comments.)
7.
The facilitator leads the group in a discussion, which is as important as the role play itself. Through
discussion, mentors gain insights and can look at alternatives. The discussion should address such
questions as:
o
What happened?
o
Why did it turn out the way it did?
o
Do you like the way it turned out?
o
Who would have to do what to make it turn out differently?
1
This project was supported by Grant No. 2009-JU-FX-K001 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of
Justice. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mentors who have not role played before may feel reluctant to try it. The following strategies can help
participants get started:

The training facilitator and a training participant do the first role play, asking the group to observe.

Give the role players time to prepare their roles with support from the facilitator as needed.

Pair off or divide mentors into groups and let everyone role play the same situation at the same time
among themselves with no observers. Then discuss the scene with the entire group.

Praise all efforts. Emphasize how important it is for the entire group to experience a real-life mentoring
situation from which everyone present can learn and grow.
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