Student Mentoring Project

SETTING UP A MOTIVATIONAL MENTORING SYSTEM IN DISTANCE EDUCATION

Ormond Simpson

January 2013
SECTION 1.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MOTIVATIONAL MENTORING

A brief theoretical background to the psychology of ‘Motivational Mentoring’

This is just a brief note about the psychological theory underlying the recommendations in this Mentoring Guide. Any one more interested in getting on with the practice of mentoring is welcome to skip this introduction although you might want to come back and read it later at your leisure.

There are two key characteristics of a motivational mentoring model –

positive psychology and the ‘strengths approach’ to motivation
proactivity – taking the initiative to reach out to mentees rather than waiting to be contacted by them.

Positive Psychology

The model of motivation enhancement that I suggest should be used is derived from the relatively recent field of ‘Positive Psychology’. In essence Positive Psychology studies the reasons why people are happy and functioning well, rather than why they are unhappy and functioning poorly.

It is the study of people's strengths rather than their weaknesses and in its practical form it has been called ‘the Strengths Approach’. In effect the Strengths Approach seeks to identify people’s strengths and exploit them, rather than identify their weaknesses in order to remediate them. Focusing mainly on people’s weaknesses is essentially a de-motivating process. The Strengths Approach seeks to strengthen students’ ‘social identities’ instead of threatening them.

There are clearly questions to be raised as to the practical soundness of such a new field. And it is easy to dismiss this branch of psychology as yet another too easy cure for difficult problems. Yet there is substantial accumulating evidence of its effectiveness in varied situations such as (in the UK)programs like the ‘Discovering Potential – supporting self-esteem through learning’ and the ‘Springboard’ confidence building sessions.

There are two particular reasons why the Strengths Approach might be helpful in a distance mentoring programme:

- firstly the strengths approach works directly on people’s motivation through strengthening their social identities – the way they feel about themselves and their sense of self-confidence in who they are and what they can achieve. Someone who is well motivated will overcome many of the problems that they face independently, or with only minimal support

- secondly, and particularly importantly, there appears to be evidence that relatively short and easy activities can produce ‘effects far beyond what you might expect from the simplicity of the interventions’ (Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck). A Yale psychologist, Julio Garcia, describes the techniques as ‘a light switch that releases the motivation and abilities that students had all along’ (New Scientist 13 January 2007).

If it is true that inputs need not necessarily be very time-consuming as long as they are soundly based in the theory, then this has important implication for mentoring. It suggests that the time and effort needed for mentoring can be made more efficient and lead to increased capacity building.

The ‘Strengths Approach’ to motivational mentoring

Boniwell (2003) has identified the basic strengths approaches to mentoring in seven points as follows:

Focus on the student’s existing assets and competences
Draw out their past successes and high point moments
Encourage their positive emotions (their hopes and ‘elevated’ thoughts)
Identify their underlying values, goals and motivation (what they aim to achieve)
Encourage them to narrate (tell their life story, how they put life in perspective, how they make sense of life)
Identify their resources, protective factors and their potential
ONLY THEN, if possible, talk about their uncertainties, fears, and lack of skills.

Proactivity

One last important part of mentoring theory is the need for mentors to be proactive. That is, to take the initiative to contact their mentee and to actively explore issues with them, rather than being reactive and waiting for the mentee to contact them. This is because, as has been frequently noted, ‘Students who need help the most, seek it the least’.

In distance learning proactive contactis most likely to be through phone, text messaging or email contact, although if the allocation of mentees to mentors can be ona geographical basis there is the possibility of face-to-face meetings.

This proactive contact need not be prolonged to be effective. It has been shown that well-timed short but frequent ‘motivational messages’ can be just as effective as longer communications that are more widely spaced. The important thing is to remindmentees that ‘their’ mentor still has them in mind and is available for help and support at any point.

Organization of mentoring

There are two main stages to setting up a mentoring service:

Inviting volunteer mentors and potential mentees and linking them up one to one
Telling them who they’ve been linked with and briefing them as to what to do

The following documents are just examples that were used to set up a motivational mentoring scheme in a distance education programme on the UKOU. The results of the scheme were published in the paper'Student-student mentoring for engagement and retention in distance education'on the website

[1. MENTOR INVITATION AND FORM]

STUDENT MENTORING

To: All Continuing Registered Students

Would you like to be a new student's mentor?

We would like to offer new applicants and students the opportunity of having an mentor - an experienced student to help and advise them during their studies.

So we are looking for volunteer mentors from amongst students like yourself. As a mentor, you'd be put in touch with a new student in your area intending to do the course you recently took yourself.

Your mentoring 'duties' would be entirely up to you and your 'mentee', but we hope you will be able to offer some encouragement, support and advice from your own experience of dealing with study. You are not meant in any way to supplant your Mentee's tutor or counselor who remains their principle adviser. You are just there to offer an occasional friendly helping hand from your knowledge of life as it's lived in distance study.

Contact with your mentee will be as much or as little as you mutually decide and can be by email, text, an occasional phone call or meeting in a pub as you wish. The relationship can be ended at any time if either side so desires.

Some of your questions answered:

What will I get out of it?

Well nothing financially. Indeed, it could cost you a couple of stamps, the occasional local phone call, or the price of a drink. But we hope you will et the please and satisfaction out of helping someone take their first steps into distance study and perhaps becoming a vital factor in their success.
We will send you a certificate at the end of your mentoring and you should mention your experience in mentoring in any job or other application you might want to make.

What will my mentor get?

A friendly supporting hand outside the formal advisory system and so particularly helpful at certain times. Above all you'll be someone who's been through some of what they're going through so your advice will be especially fresh and pertinent.

What will our institution get out of it?

This is not a try-on to get teaching or counseling on the cheap - a mentor's role is quite different and supplementary to a tutor’s or counselor’s job. Our research shows that the extra support of a mentor can be quite critical in keeping a new student on course.

How much time will it take?

That depends on you. We would expect it to be a matter of a few hours, spent over a year from when new students learn that they've been offered a place, through to when they take the exam and (hopefully) become experienced students themselves.

If you are willing to be such a student mentor, fill in the form over and return it to us by post or email.

We'll then try to collate your name with someone from our list of new students who've said they'd like a mentor. We’ll send you his or her name etc., with a short 'Guide to Mentorsand Mentees' which will give you a few practical hints on how the scheme can work.

If we can't find anyone suitable near you we'll still write and let you know. Meanwhile our grateful thanks for your support and best wishes for your studies.

VOLUNTEER MENTOR FORM

Name ______

Address* (not necessary)

Day phone no. ______

Evening phone no. ______

Mobile phone______

Best times to phone ______

E-mail address if any ______

Nearest large town ______

Sex ______Age ______Occupation ______

Past courses ______

______

Intended courses ______

Are there any particular experiences or skills you could pass on to a new student? – e.g. combining job, children, pregnancy etc with studies, overcoming disruptions due to illness, disability and so on. ______

______

* you don’t have to give your address if you’d prefer not. You can always give this to your mentee later if you wish.

[2. MENTEE INVITATION AND FORM]

STUDENT MENTORING

To: All Newly Registered Students

Would you like a 'Mentor' ?

We have a number of volunteers from our existing students to act as mentors to new students so I am writing to ask you if you would like the help of a mentor from now and during your first year.

Yourmentor would be:

an experienced student who may have taken your chosen course or its predecessor sometime in the past.
available by phone or email to give you advice and talk things over with you.

Your mentor would not be:

a substitute for your tutor or counselor when allocated.
an expert in the institution's administrative system - if you have queries in that area, do contact us directly or your tutor or counselor when allocated.

Your mentor will:

be someone who has faced some of the same issues you may face in your studies - such as finding time, organizing jobs and family commitments, adapting to study and so on. She/he will be able to lend an ear to how you feel, tell you how she/he coped, what it was like, what helped, what did not help and so on.

Mentors won't:

be part of our formal student support system; their help is entirely informal. They will have nothing to do with assessment or the rules and regulations. And they will not be paid in any way.

Contact with your mentor:

will be informal and as frequent or infrequent as you and she/he decides. It may be an occasional phone call,email or meeting over a drink at your local pub. The relationship can be ended at any time if either side so desires.

Linking up with a mentor

If you are interested in having a mentor please complete the form overleaf and return it to us by post or email. We will then try to match you with a mentor and send you her/his name and address together with a short 'Guide to Mentoring' which will give a few practical ideas on how the scheme should work.

Please note that the number of volunteers is limited so we may not be able to match you - we will let you know. Please allow several weeks for us to respond to your request.

With warmest wishes for your future studies.

VOLUNTEER MENTEE FORM

Name ______

Address* (not necessary)

Day phone no. ______

Evening phone no. ______

Mobile phone______

Best times to phone ______

E-mail address if any ______

Nearest large town ______

Sex ______Age ______Occupation ______

Intended courses ______

______

Are there any particular concerns you have as a new student? – e.g. finding time, organizing jobs and family commitments, adapting to study and so on.

______

* you don’t have to give your address if you’d prefer not. You can always give this to your mentor later if you wish.

[3 MENTOR/MENTEE ALLOCATION NOTIFICATION]

STUDENT MENTORING

Dear student

Thank you for volunteering for the student mentoring scheme. We have allocated you to a mentor/mentee as follows:

Name ______

Day phone no. ______

Evening phone no. ______

Mobile phone______

Best times to phone ______

E-mail address if any ______

Nearest large town ______

Sex ______Age ______Occupation ______

Intended courses ______

______

A copy of this letter has been sent simultaneously to you both.

Guide to mentoring

I attach a short guide to mentoring to help you. I suggest that the mentor takes the initiative to make the first contact; after that it’s up to you both. If you experience any concerns with this project please get in touch with me. I will be in contact again ,later in the year to ask you how useful you found this process.

Thank you again for taking part in this initiative. Good luck for your studies!
[4. MENTOR/MENTEE GUIDE]

Guide to StudentMentoring

for mentors and mentees

1.What is mentoring?

Mentoring is a process where a new student on a course is supported by an experienced student on the same course or who has completed that course or others previously.

2.Aims of mentoring

The aim of such support is to provide practical help, encouragement and support in a variety of informal ways which complement the formal support provided by the new student’s tutor or counselor.

3.Who are the mentors?

Mentors will be experienced students who will have faced many of the issues that new students will face such as finding the time to study, organizing job and family commitments, developing good study skills, and generally managing the stress of being a distance student.

They won’t need to be experts on the institution’s administrative and academic systems and should refer their mentee the institution as appropriate. They’re not there to try to teach the course but they can answer their mentees queries if the feel they know the answer or encourage their mentee to ask the right question of their tutor.

Mentors are there to lend an ear to their mentee, share their own experiences of coping, and encourage their mentee to approach their tutor for academic and administrative help where appropriate.

4.What will mentors get out of it?

Nothing financially. Indeed it might cost a mentor a couple of stamps, the cost of an

occasional phone call. But we do hope that they will get the (often immense)

satisfaction of helping someone take perhaps their first steps into distance education, and becoming (as we’ve found) the vital factor in their success. There may be the opportunity to put their experience towards working in another mentoring capacity or in teaching

5.Who are the mentees?

Mentees will be students probably new to distance education and its methods of learning. They may not have studied for a while and be rather rusty; they may be studying an unfamiliar subject, or they may have many other demands on their time.

6.What will mentees get out of it?

Mentees will have an informal link with someone who isn’t part of the institution’s formal support structure, who doesn’t have any role in the assessment or rules and regulations.

Their mentor will be someone who can just listen and exchange experiences, topics and encouragement on many topics, such as

What will the course be like?
Studying – what works best?
Time – how much needed? How to organise yourself?
Assignments – how to tackle them?
Falling behind and catching up
Exams – how to get through
Managing learning and life

7.How much time will it take?

That will depend on the people involved. We would expect it to be a matter of a few hours spread over the year.

8.Contact

We suggest that the mentor takes the initiative to make contact when he or she gets the information about their mentee. Contact can be by email or phone. The mentor could start by introducing him or herself and just asking a few questions like:

“How are you getting on so far?”
“What are you hoping to get from this course?”
“What are your long-terms aims in doing distance study?”
Once contact has been made more personal things might be discussed such as
“What is your background - have you studied before?”
“How did you get on then - what was most helpful?”
“Tell me about something you’ve been successful at in the past”.

After the first contact mentors and mentees might want to decide on how to make further contact, by what methods or how frequently. If making contact by phone you might want establish a good time to phone in future for both parties and possibly arrange your next contact for a few weeks hence, say after the mentee’s first tutorial or assignment.

9.What issues are outside the mentor/mentee relationship?

Remember that mentors are not experts in institutional administration which can be complicated! For admin questions about regulations, finance and so on please refer to the institution itself.

10.What happens if after the course has started, I find I don’t really need my mentor? I don’t want to cause offence!

Not a problem. Your mentor is there to offer an additional point of contact and support, but if you find you don’t need that support, all well and good! Just contact your mentor to thank him/her for the support, but saying you’re now launched and can cope unsupported.

11.And if it doesn’t work?

Obviously we can’t guarantee that the relationship will be a positive and productive one for everyone every time. Everyone who takes part agrees that the relationship can be ended by either side at any time.

12Who can I contact at the institution during the year?

Contact the Student Mentoring Coordinator at the institution at any time with any queries.

Finally, here are a couple of comments from students involved in a previous student mentoring project last year: