Enriching The Mentor-Student Relationship For A Successful Partnership In Teaching

Why pedagogical mentoring is seen as an important issue in our educational system?

The pedagogical mentoring is a subject largely debated in the past 15 years. Being a designated person one has to be an experienced professor, having a well-known prestige among the Community and being able to initially train teachers through direct mentoring, assisting the pedagogical preparation in the appointed school.

Nowadays, an important aspect is the fact that it is done in the very field the future trainees are about to enter. The purpose of pedagogical training is to form students ‘ abilities to work with information taken from specialty field or Educational Science; to orientate students in using curriculum, school programme and textbooks; to develop students’ abilities to use didactic materials; to initiate students in lab or cabinet activity; to earn professional abilities.

To form psycho-pedagogical competences, to master didactic technology and methodology, to adjust an educative behaviour for high performances of pupils, it means to possess initial psycho-pedagogical training, to develop, by means of pedagogical training, specialty and psycho-pedagogical knowledge. Considering that the didactic activity is closely related to the pupil's individual and individual peculiarities, it is necessary to know the student's personality. By doing part with the trainee, the mentor has the task of initiating the student and the future teacher to know the pupil's individuality, to be able to do the learning tasks, to organize different activities according to their individual peculiarities.

Theoretical aspects. Concepts

In general terms Ezechil (2009) mentoring is the activity which emphases the relationship between an expert / mentor, and a mentee. The first becomes a valuable source of in training. He/she becomes a role model, worth to follow, preparing the appropriate learning context. In the university system mentoring takes several shapes, even if one cannot link human models to activities. Thus, there are three types of mentoring:

• Academic – one is taken by another person and familiarized with the scientific and research field.

• Professional – being initialized to practice a job, like becoming a chemist, biologist, an engineer, a. s. o

• Didactic – to learn how to teach – educate – assess, becoming yourself a model.

The last mentioned must not be mistaken by becoming a future teacher, but it means that ANY teacher might become a role model in a didactic situation. Therefore, there may be good teachers who are not directly involved in creating future / to be teachers, but who are worthy role models.

Atchison, Pollock, Reeders, and Rizzetti, (1999), Boud, Solomon and Symes (2001) focus on the idea that students must understand the importance of being integrated in real – life, up – to – date work situations where they are to set operational correlations between academic teaching and effective professional activities, an integrated learning work, or as Kolb (1984) stated “experiential learning”. In the above mentioned scholars‘opinion by being part in the real life situations students earn opportunities to test in practice the learning theories; they are facing the school organizing medium and culture; they are involved in relevant teaching situations.

On the other hand, mentoring as a professional, scientific, pragmatic and acknowledged activity is set in a larger social scale, in between a professional community.

I believe it is important to take responsibilities over our own mentoring, but in the same time, to look for role models. A mentor can guide your career, or can have some abilities you lack but you admire or wish to possess.

A mentor can:

• Share his / her “professional secrets” or values

• Build and maintain a positive relationship with the student / mentee

• Help the mentee to be integrated in school working atmosphere

• Communicate with the student / mentee

• Stimulate his / her activity

• Offer support, guidance, good practice models

• Set challenging activities to practice the abilities of the mentee

• Provide direct and useful feedback

People need help in day to day activity, even in their own personal and professional development. Not even school, be it one of the best, can offer lifelong training, or to prepare oneself to be the best at work.

Mentoring is between people of specialty, one being a mentee, and the other, a wise, experienced professor. The mentor organizes demo and teaching lessons for his/her students, making the pedagogical training an effective educative system, and in the same time he/she offers them the possibility to “steal” techniques, didactical methods and ways of teaching (Chiș, 2005).

The ideal connection between the two of them should respect some points:

• The mentor gives a quick and efficient feedback. He/she is responsible for assessment files and for grading the didactic training. The mentor shows students how to deal with extracurricular activities (school celebrations or shows, pedagogical meetings, parents ‘meetings or parents‘school).

• He/she takes responsibility for co-coordinating with the Faculty mentor, the last one helping the first, but in the same time working together with his/her co–workers, supervising the activity of the trainee students.

• The mentor professor presents his/her schedule, his/her classes to teach, the timetable, some other complex activities like: free tuition, semmestrial meetings, special classes for pupils able of performance, Olympics or school contests, lessons for School Selected Curriculum, Excellency Center meetings.

It’s important for us, as teachers who teaches future teachers, to understand that the purpose of pedagogical training is to form students ‘abilities to work with information taken from specialty field or Educational Science in a class; to orientate students in using curriculum, school programme and textbooks; to develop students’ abilities to use didactic materials; to initiate students in lab or cabinet activity; to earn professional abilities. By all means the students ‘pedagogical training must not be just preparing, delivering and analyzing a lesson. It has to be an occasion to apply all the theoretic knowledge earned at the time.

The communication has to be seen as an inter-human relationship, like a specific interaction. Any kind of activity means information exchange, communication operations and relationships. A definitely characteristic of the didactic communication is to identify, possess good communication ability and to decipher correct relationships between partners. To be a good communicator is a quality. The art of efficient communication results in being able to express ideas, opinions of your own but to be understood by the other persons.

A good communication mentor - mentee is based on stimulating the implicative communication. That is to earn high quality if in – training, of pedagogical training.

The role of the mentor is to establish communication through:

• Adapting ways of communication via efficient, individual situations

• Gradually introducing specialty terminology and in – training information

• Focusing on the objectives of the lesson

• Clear and short talking

• Verifying correct receiving of the message sent

• Building the capacity to communicate with and between students

• Receiving the mentee’s opinion

In training mentee for a didactic career is subject to the following values:

• Offering data on objectives, contents, structures of pedagogical training

• Thinking about projecting, sustaining and assessing the pedagogical training

To form communication abilities at the trainee is done through:

• Permanent documentation of the in – training activity

• Stimulating communication abilities via specific methods

• Projecting and stimulating usage of training theme, specialty methodological works, thematic bibliography, means of teaching, curriculum, textbooks, didactic projects

To earn communication and relating abilities one has to

• Project, deliver and assess a lesson

• Fill in a psycho – pedagogic sheet after knowing and working with pupils

• Team working ( for team – teaching lessons)

• Cooperating with the mentor, parent, tutor, teaching staff

Specific competences to be earned are:

• Best usage of communicating concepts and modern theories ( horizontal , vertical, complex, multiple, diverse, specific communication)

• To master the emphatic behavior

• To access various informational sources

• To project, conduct, realize the teaching act via communication ( Ezechil, 2008)

Not one single activity may be done without communication. This means that it is the fundamental element of human being. Through it, people socialize, have different services, bond friendships, write in social group, even at work place. Statistics say that 75 % within a work day we talk and listen. By communication we analyze ourselves and the other, we interact, identify, establish and maintain social contacts.

Communication is the key to personal and professional efficiency. It is seen everywhere, in every social domain, in education as well, where is shown as a particular, personal form.

Communication provides teaching the values of a complex education intervening, based on a didactic language which proves the structure of the educated person, adding some changes of cognitive, affective, attitudinal and acting nature. Relationships among working groups are different to those within the familiar or friendly ones. They are of cooperation and hierarchy. The last affects inter – human relationships and the way we communicate. Although they might seem not equal, the mentor trainee relationship is based on collaboration and close communication.

Peter and Pop (2012) considers that an efficient communication is the interactive communication, and its coordination is:

• Adequate and permanent talking mentor – others, (school mentor, trainees, school board)

• Correct and on time information flux

• Usage of short, polite language

• Capacity to offer logic argumentation for your own ideas

• Capacity to correct reaction to unknown situations

• Correct usage of terminology

• Constant feedback

Communication must adapt to any situation, to other characters or to group characteristics. Because any activity has specific character, either complementary or similar or totally different, objective or subjective for persons that communicate, keeping an efficient talking relationship has to identify the similarities, knowing and interpreting correctly the resemblances or differences of the situation, because it is the only way a person learns to communicate, think or act. (Ortan, 2005)

The art of communication is not a natural process or an ability one gets when born. We, people, learn to communicate. The style, itself, deals with several problems which impose methodological prudence: the necessity to operate within the concept; to view the whole perspective and its complexity; to adapt the style to its context; to find not a “better style” but an “optimal one”; to make the relationship efficiently.

It is needed to see closely to us and the others, to identify what we need to communicate, to engage in various type of communicating activity, to get help to improve one’s capacity to communicate.

Thus, one can try to do the above by practicing the following:

• Ability to talk - to listen and speak-

• Cooperate and create a reliable medium

• The self-respect, the mutual respect, tolerance for the others’ different opinion, a democratic decision making

• Accepting your own and others responsibility

• Dealing with emotions

• Interpersonal problems

What mentoring should represent in the school activity in order to improve the educational process?

Mentoring represents a method to develop human resource, its purpose being to get better human performance. A mentor is a person having more experience, that shares his/her experience and knowledge to a beginner. As time goes by, the mentor was that person who helped the beginners to form a career and to give advice. Mentoring is about advice, suggestions, teaching in a formal or informal way. In the academic stage, the word mentor is used as a synonym for “counselor” or “tutor”. Being a mentor means to share from your wisdom, to be a role model, to offer support to the beginner in projecting, teaching and assessing. Therefore, the didactic activity is closely related to age and personal peculiarities of the pupils, who requires a better understanding. Teaming up with the mentee, a mentor has the task to initiate the to be teacher in knowing the pupil characteristics, to create differential teaching tasks, to organize differential activities based on the pupil individuality. For a better understanding the mentor helps the mentee with methods, procedures or modalities to learn the personality of the pupils. So, this is done by studying the psychological profile, the stage of psycho – physical development of the child (Chiș, 2005).

A teacher is greatly responsible for educating a pupil, for guiding youngsters in a changing society which asks / demands for competence, equilibrium and permanent adaptation to new. Having a large pedagogical experience, a mentor offers the tools and methods to know the pupil, a mentor supports in every way the mentee in finding new and efficient techniques to “catch” the pupil’s personality. Being a synthesized product, made out of important data on child evolution, the file is important when the pupil passes on a next level, the new class teacher knowing how to interact with his / her pupils.

A good “adviser” projects the activity to know the pupils by finding suitable ways or instruments, offering the mentee physical evidence on the pupil conduct. The mentor may initiate the mentee in a case study, its steps to follow. As in any profession, training is a big challenge for the new ones. They overpass a period of training and applying of knowledge, skills and abilities earned during the education studies.

It is a period of transition, the to be teacher facing a huge challenge, of finding a mentor to guide activity, to make him/her confident in what he/she theoretically learned. Therefore it is the period of guidance and support to develop competence and trust. Regarding educational mentoring, it is said to integrate academic demands to new means of developing in training teachers, to develop abilities to learn from and off the training, to develop research and to use them in academic curriculum.