Abstract
Mentors are called upon to counsel, guide, coach and advise mentees. Mentoring creates a relationship with the purpose of facilitating learners to achieve their learning goals. It allows individuals to look objectively at their performance and future development. Mentoring takes a formal setting in WBL practice which involves an experience for learning and a change in which mentor and mentee utilize a range of core components including honesty, trust and respectful listening to transfer knowledge and skills. Students on WBL practice view mentors as the right professionals with advanced work experience and knowledge from whom they may seek assistance for their professional and personal development. While many students undertaking WBL practice have experienced positive mentoring, there are some that complain about the lack of attention and care provided by their mentors. Most studies investigated the antecedents, outcomes, and benefits of programs with little attention given to identifying and illustrating what is required to ensure the quality of the mentoring process and the effectiveness of the mentoring relationship. This study sought to identify the factors that contribute towards positive mentoring for enhancing the student-mentor relationship. A survey questionnaire was designed for exploring the factors that lead to positive mentoring in WBL practice. The questionnaire was administered to students of the University of Mauritius who undertook WBL practice at the respective placement settings. Mentors providing the necessary coaching at these practice settings were also requested to complete a questionnaire. The findings reveal a list of the main factors which can lead to successful mentoring and enhance the student-mentor relationship. The element of ‘trust’ was found to be the most influential factor in the relationship, followed by ‘empathy’ and ‘openness’. These factors are seen to enhance interactive capability of mentees which contribute much towards improved acquisition of knowledge and skills in the practice.
Highlights
Mentoring in WBL involves discussing, demonstrating and practicing tasks that centre on developing knowledge, skills and understanding of mentees
To obtain a good representation of the students, the sample was stratified over the Faculties with selection of 25 students from each Faculty of (1) Faculty of Law & Management (FLM), (2) Faculty of Science (FOS) and (3) Faculty of Social Studies & Humanities (FSSH) and (4) Faculty of Engineering (FOE)
The evidence suggests that students from FLM, FOS, FOE, FSSH shared similar views and agreed with the positive mentorship work in facilitating their WBL practice learning
Summary
Mentoring in WBL involves discussing, demonstrating and practicing tasks that centre on developing knowledge, skills and understanding of mentees. Mentors and mentees are called upon to work, share and care for achieving stipulated goals. The quality of the mentor-mentee relationship is important as learning takes place in a social context. The mentor must have relevant experience, which is valuable to the mentee and the mentee must take responsibility for his/her own learning. Mentors are supposed to provide them with the necessary support for mentees to achieve their learning objectives. They act as the facilitators for the mentees, but the responsibility of learning rests on mentees’ own effort and contribution to the work place
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