We believe our students are so good we want to employ them ourselves. The Student Academic Mentoring Partnership (StAMP) is being established as part of the Universities on going commitment to work in partnership with students in all aspects of university life. We want the students to take ownership of the university and in so doing create a truly exciting, inspirational and collaborative learning community where students are active participants in their own education rather than just passive observers. Academic Mentoring is an integral part of this vision as it encourages students to share knowledge and help develop different skills with the support of the university. As such the scheme is a reciprocal relationship where the mentor, mentee and institution benefit.
What is Student Academic Mentoring?
The Student Academic Mentoring Project has been designed as a method of instruction that involves students teaching other students. For a student who is struggling with a particular subject area it can be less intimidating to approach another student as the formal relationship between staff and student doesn’t exist. Because the mentor and mentee share common ground and help one another to find a solution to the problem.
Mentoring can be delivered through one to one sessions, group sessions, practical workshops and supplemental instructors within the classroom. Mentors can help to reinforce the lessons of the staff as well as improving the learning methods by making the lessons more engaging for students. It can help to strengthen both the mentor and mentees’ understanding of concepts and skills and engages students in creative thinking and collaborative problem solving.
Student Academic Mentors should be seen as collaborative participants who help to create learning methods by staff and as fellow students who can offer advice and help by students. They are not teachers and cannot offer definitive answers/lessons/.
Tips on How to be a good mentor
Learning should be grounded in learners’ experiences. Students have accumulated a foundation of knowledge and life experiences that are a valuable resource. They learn best when new concepts are built on this foundation of knowledge.
Students learn best when they are in collaborative environment. They want guidance and an exchange of ideas, not competition or to be told what to do and how to do it. Respond to questions by guiding mentees to an answer rather than imposing an answer upon them.
Help participants develop collaborative problem solving skills. Involved them in answering other participants’ questions, and have them work together to arrive at solutions to problems.
Help participants learn how to help themselves.
Listen carefully and respectfully. Take participants seriously and acknowledge what people say even if you don’t agree with them. Students need to feel that their ideas are recognized as worthy contributions. Who knows, their ideas might be better than yours.
Know your limitations. If you don’t know the answer to a question, that’s okay. You don’t need to know all the answers. Just say you will try to find the information they requested and get back to them. And then do it.
Treat it as a way of learning yourself. You can gain as much from mentoring as you can give. One of the best ways to learn is to try and teach the material yourself.
Create an atmosphere that is serious but fun. Think about ways to make the sessions fun by injecting humour, for example use YouTube videos or tell funny anecdotes from your personal experience. Students are usually most open to new ideas when they are enjoying themselves and feel comfortable enough to risk making mistakes.
Learning should be grounded in contemporary issues. It is often important for students to see how what they are learning relates to the wider world. You could try and find ways of using news stories within your sessions.
Know your subject. You need to read around the subject and refresh your memory about what it is. This doesn’t mean you have to have a complete knowledge of the subject, mentoring is an exploratory way of learning and both you and the mentees can help each other arrive at a solution or answer.
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