STUDENT’S PERCEPTION AND SATISFACTION TOWARDS MENTOR’S ROLE AND
RESPONSIBILITIES AMONG UPSR STUDENTS IN KUALA SELANGOR.
BY
NORZIANI ZUBIR
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Education
Institute of Education
International Islamic University Malaysia
JUNE 2011
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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to explore the extent of the importance of the roles of mentor as perceived by students in Kuala Selangor. It is also examined the satisfaction of the students towards mentors’ role and responsibilities. It attempts to improve mentoring program at primary school especially for UPSR students. To achieve this purpose, a sample of 122 students in Kuala Selangor primary school who had gone through the mentoring program was selected. This study employed a survey instrument adapted from studies done by Yeoh Siok Tee (1997). One hundred and fifty sets of questionnaire were distributed to students in Kuala Selangor. The respondents returned 122 completed questionnaires. The data collected was tested using SPSS version 12.5. The major findings of this study revealed that mentoring program very important among UPSR students. The level of students’ satisfaction can be rated as satisfied towards mentors’ role and responsibilities. It is recommended that the relationship between mentor and mentee be considered when assessing the quality of mentors’ role and responsibilities.
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ﺚﺤﺒﻟا ﺔﺻﻼﺧ
ﺎﻤآ ﻪﺟﻮﻤﻟا وأ ﺢﺻﺎﻨﻟا رود ﺔﻴﻤهأ ىﺪﻣ فﺎﺸﺘآا ﻰﻟإ ﺔﺳارﺪﻟا ﻩﺬه فﺪﻬﺗ رﻮﻐﻧﻼﻴﺳ ﻻاﻮآ ﻲﻓ ﺬﻴﻣﻼﺘﻟا ﻩرﻮﺼﺗ .
ﻢﻬﻟﺎﺒﻗإ ىﻮﺘﺴﻣ ﻚﻟﺬآ سرﺪﺗ ﺎﻤآ
ﺎﻨﺘﻗاو ﺔﻴﻟﻮﺌﺴﻤﻟاو تﺎﺒﺟاﻮﻟا ﻦﻣ نﻮﻬﺟﻮﻤﻟاو نﻮﺤﺻﺎﻨﻟا ﻪﺑ مﺎﻗ ﺎﻤﺑ ﻢﻬﻋ .
ﺎﻬﻧإ
ﺔﺳرﺪﻤﻟا ﻲﻓ ﻪﻴﺟﻮﺘﻟاوأ ﺢﺼﻨﻟا ﺞﻣﺎﻧﺮﺑ ﻪﺑ رﱠﻮﻄﻳ نأ ﻦﻜﻤﻳ ﺎﻣ مﺪﻘﺗ نأ لوﺎﺤﺗ ﺬﻴﻣﻼﺘﻟ ﺔﺒﺴﻨﻟﺎﺑ ﺔﺻﺎﺧو ،ﺔﻴﺋاﺪﺘﺑﻻا UPSR
. ،فﺪﻬﻟا اﺬه ﻖﻴﻘﺤﺗ ﻞﺟأ ﻦﻣو
ﻦﻣ ﺔﻨﻴﻋ رﺎﻴﺘﺧا ﻢﺗ 122
ﻻاﻮآ ﻲﻓ ﺔﻴﺋاﺪﺘﺑﻻا سراﺪﻤﻟا ﻦﻣ اﺬﻴﻤﻠﺗ رﻮﻐﻧﻼﻴﺳ
ﺞﻣﺎﻧﺮﺒﻟا اﺬه ﻲﻓ اﻮآﺮﺘﺷا ﻦﻤﻣ .
ﻲﺼﺤﻔﻟا بﻮﻠﺳﻷا ﺔﺳارﺪﻟا ﻩﺬه ﺖﻣﺪﺨﺘﺳا
ﻲﺗ كﻮﺌﻴﺳ ﻩﻮﺌﻴﻳ ﺎﻬﺑ مﺎﻗ ﻲﺘﻟا ﺔﺳارﺪﻟا ﻦﻣ ﻩﺮﻳﻮﺤﺗ ﻢﺗ يﺬﻟا )
1997 .(
ﻢﺗ ﺪﻗو
ﻊﻳزﻮﺗ 150
نﺎﻜﻓ ،رﻮﻐﻧﻼﻴﺳ ﻻاﻮآ ﻲﻓ ﺬﻴﻣﻼﺘﻟا ﻰﻟإ تﺎﻧﺎﻴﺒﺘﺳﻻا ﻦﻣ ﺔﻠﻤﺟ
ﻢﻬﻨﻣ ﺔﻠﻣﺎﻜﻟا ﺔﺑﺎﺟﻹﺎﺑ تﺎﻧﺎﻴﺒﺘﺳﻻا در ﻦﻣ دﺪﻋ 122
اﺬﻴﻤﻠﺗ . ﻩﺬه رﺎﺒﺘﺧا ﻢﺗو
ﺞﻣﺎﻧﺮﺑ ماﺪﺨﺘﺳﺎﺑ تﺎﻣﻮﻠﻌﻤﻟا SPSS
ﺔﺨﺴﻧ 12.5
. ﻰﻟإ ﺔﺳارﺪﻟا ﻩﺬه ﺖﻠﺻﻮﺗ
ﻰﻟإ ﺔﺒﺴﻨﻟﺎﺑ ﺔﻐﻟﺎﺑ ﺔﻴﻤهأ ﻪﻟ ﻪﻴﺟﻮﺘﻟاو ﺢﺼﻨﻟا ﺞﻣﺎﻧﺮﺑ نأ ﺎهدﺎﻔﻣ ﺔﻤﻬﻣ ﺔﺠﻴﺘﻧ ﺬﻴﻣﻼﺗ UPSR
ﻦﻣ نﻮﻬﺟﻮﻤﻟاو نﻮﺤﺻﺎﻨﻟا ﻪﻣﺪﻗ ﺎﻤﺑ ﻢﻬﻋﺎﻨﺘﻗا ىﻮﺘﺴﻣ نأو ،
ﻪﻧﺄﺑ ﻪﻤﻴﻴﻘﺗ ﻦﻜﻤﻳ ﺔﻴﻟﻮﺌﺴﻤﻟاو روﺪﻟا دﻮﺸﻨﻤﻟا رﺪﻘﻟا ﻎﻠﺑ ﺪﻗ
. لﻮﺻﻮﻟا ﻞﺟأ ﻦﻣو
نأ حﺮﺘﻘﻧ ﻦﻴﻬﺟﻮﻤﻟاو ﻦﻴﺤﺻﺎﻨﻟا ﺔﻴﻟﻮﺌﺴﻣو رود ﻦﻋ ﺢﻴﺤﺼﻟا ﺮﻳﺪﻘﺘﻟا ﻰﻟإ ﺔﻬﺟ ﻦﻣ ﻦﻴﻬﺟﻮﻤﻟاوأ ﻦﻴﺤﺻﺎﻨﻟا ﻦﻴﺑ ﺖﻤﺗ ﻲﺘﻟا ﺔﻗﻼﻌﻟا رﺎﺒﺘﻋﻻا ﻲﻓ ﺬﺧﺆﺗ ىﺮﺧأ ﺔﻬﺟ ﻦﻣ ﺬﻴﻣﻼﺘﻟاو .
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APPROVAL PAGE
I certify that I supervised and read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the Degree of Master of Education.
...
Zainurin Abd. Rahman Supervisor
I certify that I have read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the Degree of Master of Education.
...
...
Hairuddin Mohd. Ali Examiner
This thesis was submitted to the Institute of Education and is accepted as fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Education.
...
Siti Rafiah Abd Hamid Director, Institute of Education
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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references and a bibliography is appended.
Norziani Binti Zubir
Signature... Date...
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INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND AFFIRMATION OF FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH
Copyright © 2011 by International Islamic University Malaysia. All rights reserved.
STUDENT’S PERCEPTION AND SATISFACTION TOWARDS MENTOR’S ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES AMONG UPSR STUDENTS IN KUALA
SELANGOR.
I hereby affirm that the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) holds all the rights in the copyright of this work and henceforth any reproduction or use in any form or by means whatsoever is prohibited without the written consent of IIUM. No part of this unpublished research may be produced, stored, in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Affirmed by Norziani Binti Zubir
……… ……. ………..
Signature Date
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and formost,I thank to Almighty of Allah for His omnipotence and never ending watch and grant hidayah over me. Thanks for His merciful protection and for being the ultimate source of energy and strength needed to pursue my dream of receiving this master of Educational Administration degree. Alhamdulillah.
The success of this study is mainly due to a number of people. Without their full cooperation, overly concern feelings, full support, their experiences and their love to share their worthwhile and valuable knowledge, this study would not have materialized.
Firstly, I would like to extent my utmost appreciation and thanks to my caring supervisor, Dr. Zainurin Abd. Rahman for his dedication, patience, full support, commitment and co operation for sharing his knowledge, experiences, wisdom and professional advice in seeing to the success of this study. A very million of thanks for him.
To show my gratefulness, I would like to extend my appreciation and thanks to the headmasters and teachers of SK Bandar Baru Kuala Selangor and SK Batu 9 Jalan Bomba Tanjung Karang for being so supportive and helpful in seeing and making sure that all information that I need are in order, for the success of this study. My special thanks to the Ministry of Education for the full support in making this study possible.
My sincere thanks to Dr. Johdi Salleh also to the staff and lectures of Institute Of Education IIUM for their co- operation and hospitality throughout my study here.
I would always cherish the moment together with my classmate in Institute of Education of IIUM. My appreciation and special thanks to all my friends especially Khamsiah and Nazifah. Their co- operation had greatly helped me through my struggles.
Finally, my most cherish thanks I extend to my parents Zubir Hj. Mohd Ali and Halijah Kassim for their caring and support. To my loving husband, Nurul Makmun Mukiya, i thank him for his love and sacrifice. To my cute baby Maher Zidan, you are my soul and strength for me to gain knowledge. To my family, I thank them for all their helping and understanding in making my graduation possible.
Thanks for all of you.
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To each person who reads this...
Best wishes as you become a positive role model, mentor, and friend for the people around you...
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ... ii
Abstract in Arabic ... iii
Approval Page ... iv
Declaration ... v
Declaration of Copyright ... vi
Dedication ... vii
Acknowledgement ... viii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ... 1
Introduction ... 1
Background of the Study ... 2
Problem Statements ... 3
Purpose of the Study ... 4
Significance of the Study ... 4
Research Question ... 4
Limitation of Study ... 5
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ... 6
Introduction ... 6
Historical Perspective ... 7
Definition of Mentoring ... 8
Function of Mentoring ... 9
Mentor’s Role ... 11
Mentors’ Responsibilities and Function ... 12
Mentee/ Protégé ... 14
Types of Mentoring ... 14
Intercultural Mentoring ... 17
Stages in the Mentoring Process ... 17
Mentor- Mentee Relationship ... 19
Ending Mentoring ... 20
Benefit of Relationship ... 20
Effective Mentoring ... 21
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 23
Introduction ... 23
Research Design ... 23
Participants ... 24
Instrumentation ... 24
Data Collection Procedure ... 25
Propose Data Analysis ... 26
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS ... 27
Introduction ... 27
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Section A: Demographic information ... 27
Frequency of Meeting ... 30
Levels of Mentees’ Satisfaction ... 31
Mentee’s UPSR Trial Results ... 32
Mentee’s Study Time ... 33
Mentee’s Learning Style ... 34
Section B: Role of mentor ... 35
Students perception towards the importance of mentoring process ... 36
Mentoring and morale support ... 36
Mentoring and academic support ... 39
Mentoring, communication and relationship skills ... 41
Students view the quality of their mentors, types of assistance the students need from their mentors and students satisfaction towards their mentor’s ability in performing their roles and responsibilities ... 44
Mentoring and morale Support ... 44
Mentoring and academic Support ... 47
Mentoring, Communication and Relationship Skills ... 49
Section C: Types of Assistance the Students Need From Their Mentors .... 51
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ... 54
Introduction ... 54
Discussion and Major Findings ... 55
Demographic Information ... 55
Mentoring Process ... 56
Importance of Mentoring Process ... 57
Quality of Mentors ... 59
Assistance from Mentors to Mentees ... 60
Mentor’s Communication Skill ... 61
Mentor’s Commitments and Responsibilities ... 63
Mentor Mentee Relationships ... 64
Implication ... 64
Conclusion ... 66
Future Research Directions ... 68
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 71 APPENDIX ...
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
School as an educational institution that has roles and responsibility. School provides a balanced education for children in terms of students’ physical, spiritual and intellectual. Before this, when we talk about school, we envisaged that education field as a place where people grab a job opportunity under the government sector.
Through the National Educational Planning, school is not only for the place to gain more lessons, passed in examination and a place to get a job. It is one of the constantly efforts that towards a more balanced individual potential in terms of intellectual, spiritual and physical based on the trust of god. This effort is to produce a knowledgeable, noble, responsible and skilled person to achieve prosperity and contribute to the country’s prosperity and harmony.
The educational field is an indicator for the school achievement, some approaches must be planned in order to uphold the students achievement since the primary school. Thus, Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah also known as Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah commonly abbreviated as UPSR, translation (Primary School Evaluation Test) is a national examination taken by all Standard 6 (12-year old) students in Malaysia. Students in public schools (or sekolah kebangsaan), are required to take a minimum of five subjects in this exam but students in Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools have to take seven subjects. This exam is annually held on the first Monday of September. The passing grade depends on the average scores for the subjects Bahasa Melayu, English, Mathematics and Sciences.
2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Mentoring in organization is one of the terms that seem to have become very fashionable since the 1990s in the United Kingdom. The mentoring program gained its popularity in large corporation in Malaysia in the mid 1990s. Soon, the education sector also identified the mentoring program as an importance for the teachers and students improvement.
Mentoring program for UPSR students is organized by Ministry of Education is and it has been implemented by school teachers at primary and secondary school.
This program has been responsible on Career and Guidance Counseling Unit at each school under the Ministry of Education. These schools will select some teachers to be mentor for UPSR students in order to guide and improve students’ motivation, discipline, feeling and achievement.
A mentor mentee program is a program that needs to be implement in order to create harmonium among primary school community between students and teachers.
A mentor program is an Adoption Parents and Guidance System component. A mentor is an adoption parent that gives a piece of advice and useful guidance to some of the students. Thus, the Unit Bimbingan dan Kaunseling, Bahagian Sekolah, Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia has planned a systematic format to succeed this program. In order to achieve the goal of the program, the objectives of this program as follow:
• Guide students to be a responsible person to family, themselves and people.
• Create tolerance, compassionate and believe among students.
• Helping students out for knowing self-potential to achieve the human capital (Modal Insan) target.
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• Increasing discipline, academic achievement, co-curriculum and all aspects.
• Cooperation among teachers and students to increase UPSR achievement to achieve the goal.
PROBLEM STATEMENTS
Mentoring is compulsory and official for all students. There are no proper guidelines for implementation. Each school has their own systems. As a result, school mentors do not know the exact nature and scope of mentoring. Hence within this concept, this study tries to find out what the students perceptions and views on the mentor’s roles and responsibilities. This study will be measured on students’ perception on the role and responsibilities of the mentor in developing students’ learning and encouraging moral values that will lead to determine the extent of students’ agreement for the mentoring program. Finally, this study will answer on how to improve mentoring program among UPSR students.
RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
The figure above shows that the framework of this study consists of mentors and school in helping students to achieve the success in UPSR examination or
Mentor
Students School
Achievement
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(Primary School Evaluation Test). Mentoring program for UPSR students is organized by Ministry of Education and it has been implemented by school teachers at primary and secondary school. Some teachers will be selected to be mentor for UPSR students in order to guide and improve students’ motivation, discipline, feeling and achievement. Regarding to this research, students’ perception and satisfaction towards mentors’ role and responsibilities among UPSR students will be study. Through the students’ perception, the study will achieve what students’ need from their mentors. A set of questionnaire will be used as comprises demographic information of the respondents (UPSR students), students’ perception towards their mentor in term of communication and relationship skills, academic support and moral support, and finally the recommendation for improving the roles played by the mentors will be gathered through this study.
Notwithstanding the importance of the role played by school and mentors in developing and helping students to prepare for achievement test, this study will only investigate the roles played by the mentors. This will give an insight on the usefulness and success of the mentoring program.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to identify students’ satisfaction among UPSR students in Kuala Selangor towards the teachers’ role and responsibility as a mentor. More specifically, this study will seek to answer how important are the roles played by the mentor as perceived by the mentees.
5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The researcher hopes that the findings of this study will benefit the administrators, students and teachers. It will benefit to the administrators to provide policy makers the basis in making decision on how to improve the mentoring program among UPSR students, so that a mere comprehensive, organized and systematic program could be implemented. Thus, teacher as mentor will know how important the role of mentor in order to develop students’ learning and encourage moral values through the mentor’s role and finally to ensure the program will achieve the target of Modal Insan. This study also will provide guidelines on how to improve the supervising activities during mentoring program based on students need and perception. Lastly, this study will rise students’ thought and view on satisfaction towards mentors’ role. Through the students’ satisfaction, it can generate the idea on what students want from their mentor such skills, encouragement, guidance and etc.
RESEARCH QUESTION
The purpose of the study is to describe perception of students towards mentor’s responsibility. Specifically, the purpose of this study attempts to answer:
(a) How do the students view the quality of their mentor?
(b) How do the students perceive the importance of mentoring process?
(c) What are the types of assistance do the students need from their mentors?
(d) To what extent are the students satisfied towards their mentor’s ability in performing their roles and responsibilities?
6 LIMITATION OF STUDY
This study, like any other empirical research, is not without any limitations. One of the limitations was that there was no one established measure in mentoring. Therefore, the psychometric properties for example, the level of important and satisfaction towards mentors’ role and responsibilities had to be based on past research and literature review. Use of the measuring was necessary as there was a lack of empirical research similar to this study.
The research was limited to and reflected the responses of UPSR students on perception towards their mentors’ role and responsibility. The finding thus will not be reflective of other students in other places. While the results may apply to all students, they will have to be verified by replicating the study in all states throughout Malaysia.
In order to generalize the results, a larger number of respondents should be included in the future research.
The use of questionnaire as the main instruments of data collection may also give rise to the limitation. There might be some disparity between mentor/ mentee.
Thus, although confidentiality was emphasized, it is uncertain to what extent the responses of mentee (students) provide correct and honest opinions about their mentor.
The study focused only on the perception of the students towards their mentor.
There was also no research question formulated to study the mentor/ mentee relationship. The limitation was also limitation on timing. Data collected at single moment in time may not show the accuracy of the research. Mentees’ perception on the importance and satisfaction towards mentors’ role and responsibilities within an averagely short time may not present the actual picture.
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Finally, the limitation was that the sample used were Primary School Evaluation Test students who not full- heartedly join the mentoring program who meet their mentor rarely may not be conclusive of their view and perception and satisfaction towards their mentor.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this literature review is to analyze previous studies that examine the roles of school teachers as mentors and their relationship with their students. This chapter begins with the historical review of mentoring process followed by relevant definitions of the concerned terminologies. This will involve the functions and expected roles played by the mentor and mentee and the benefit of the process.
Finally, this chapter will also look at the processes involved in mentoring and including the elements that constitute a good exercise of mentoring.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The term ‘mentor’ has its root in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. In this myth, Odysseus, a great royal warrior, has been away fighting the Trojan War and has entrusted his son, Telemachus, to his friend and advisor, Mentor. Mentor, in this instance, has been given the responsibility to advise Telemachus and serve as a guardian to the entire royal household.
The account of Mentor in The Odessey leads us to make several conclusions about the activity which bears his name. First, mentoring is an intentional process.
Mentor intentionally carried out his responsibilities for in advising Telemachus to run the royal household and to make sure that the household is in order. Second, mentoring is a nurturing process which fosters the growth and development of the protégé, in this case Telemachus, toward full maturity. Third, mentoring is an
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insightful process in which the wisdom of the mentor is acquired and applied by the protégé. Fourth, mentoring is a supportive as well as a protective process. Upon receiving the advice from Mentor, as a protégé, Telemachus must take into consideration the advices before making decisions.
DEFINITION OF MENTORING
The literature on mentoring offers many definitions. Philips-Jones (1982) defines mentors as influential people who significantly help protégés reach their life goals. On the other hand, Alleman (1982) suggested that a mentor is a person of greater rank or expertise who teaches, counsels, guides and develops a novice in an organization or profession. Expanding on her definition, she identifies nine functions of a mentor: (a) giving information, (b) providing political information, (c) challenging assignments, (d) counseling, (e) helping with career moves, (f) developing trust, (g) show-casing protégés achievements, (h) protecting and (i) developing personal relationship.
Others view mentoring as a nurturing process in which a more skilled or more experienced person, serving as a role model, teaches, sponsors, encourages, counsels, and befriend a less skilled or less experienced person for the purpose of promoting the latter’s professional and or personal development. Mentoring functions are carried out within the context of an ongoing, caring relationship between the mentor and protégé (Anderson 1987). Finally, Sutton (1999) stipulates that mentoring is a process which support learning and development and thus performance improvements, either for an individual, team or business.
10 FUNCTIONS OF MENTORING
According to Kay (1990), mentoring is a very powerful facilitative process, but those parties involved in mentoring ought to realize that functions in a complex manner. The word function has been defined as a special duty or performance required of a person or thing in the course of work or action (World, 1966). The functions of mentoring is paralleled to the various roles that mentors are required to fulfill such as being the developer of talent, coach, door- opener, sponsor, protector or confidant to the protégé or mentee (Odell, 1989).
The awareness on the importance of mentoring process has permeate education exercise in many ways. In recent years, discussion of school reform have frequently focused on the importance of looking at the ways in which those who work in school each day are prepared for their important roles. Considerable attention has been directed at the need to examine the ways in which teachers are trained for classroom assignment, and the ways in which educational administrators are made ready to take on their responsibilities. As a result of this attention paid to the preparation of the educators, a number of rather consistent themes have emerged and are now viewed as practices that should be adopted if school practice is to be improved in the future.
The statements below indicate the sentiments towards educational practices which necessitate and require the usage of mentoring process.
i. Teachers, administrators, and other educational personnel will be more ready to step into their roles if they are able to spend a considerable amount of their pre-service training in real-life school situations; field- based training learning is a critical part of pre-service preparation.
ii. Pre-service preparation is important, but it is only the beginning of a person need to engage in lifelong professional development. Pre-service
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learning must be coupled with focused induction and continuing in service education.
iii. As individuals proceed through different phases of their career – pre- service preparation, induction, and continuing in service education – they may be assisted greatly through contact with mentors.
In this respect, mentoring, whether a one-to-one relationship or a system of several persons providing assistance to novices, can also be defined as in terms of the atmosphere in which mutual trust and belief are the ultimate goals. In such an atmosphere, mentors engage in marshalling all available resources in order to “…have an intense impact on the development of protégé (Kay, 1990).” Thus, mentoring is the essence of formative support for students.
Mentor’s Roles
Ibarra (2000) sees the mentor’s roles as two-pronged. One in helping the mentee to reflect and to learn from these reflections and two to provide high- quality feedback towards developing the mentee’s potential.
However, it must be admitted it is not easy to become an effective mentor.
Ackerman (1989) highlights this matter by suggesting that in order to be effective in their roles, mentors must indeed be able to think about how the mentee thinks, learn to provide activities to help the mentee integrates theory and practice and to understand how the mentoring process is fully integrated into the mentee’s repertoire of learning and knowing.
Through the years, mentors have also gone by the names of host, supporter, adviser, positive role model, confidant, guru, master teacher, and teacher adviser.
Under any name, though, the idea is the same. The mentor may incorporate a variety
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of strategies and activities to help the protégé grow and develop in professional competence, attitudes, and behaviors- but regardless of the specific activities and goals, the qualitative nature of the relationship determines the overall effectiveness of the mentor.
According to Jonson, 2008, the role of mentor is complex and requires the skills of a teacher, counselor, friend, role model, guide, sponsor, coach and resources.
Good ones have qualities and responsibilities that include but go beyond those of a good teacher. For teachers, a good mentor has a through command of the curriculum being taught, is able to transmit effective teaching strategies, can communicate openly and effectively, is a good listener, has strong interpersonal skills, has credibility with peers and administrators, is sensitive to the needs of protégé, is not overly judgmental and demonstrate a commitment to improving the academic achievement of protégé.
Within this experience lies the mentor’s ability to disassemble the puzzle and place it back together to make new meaning for the intern, and in so doing perhaps new meaning.
A mentor can significantly influence another person’s life. Time and energy is necessary for such relationship. You must have an open mind, and may need to set aside your goals and interests to focus on those of the mentees. Listening to the mentee actively and without judgment is important. Confidentiality must be maintained.
A key characteristic of a good mentor is the ability to encourage of the mentee’s self- confidence. Those who have been mentored well said that the most helpful aspect is the "I-know-you-can-do-it’ attitude of the mentor.
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MENTORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES AND FUNCTION
The diverse nature of a mentor’s responsibilities and function adds to the complexity of mentoring. Mentors find themselves functioning variously, firstly as trusted colleague where he or she establishes a trusting, caring relationship with the mentee (Rogers, 1961). Here, the mentoring relationship needs to be characterized by a high level of genuine of relationship, positive regard and skill on the part of the mentor, who also serves as a problem solver for the protégé. Secondly, as a mentee’s developer where he or she encourages the mentees to reflect upon their experiences.
The mentor tries to match the proteges’ current cognitive-developmental level in order to enhance growth and assist the mentees in becoming inquiring professionals (Sprinthall, 1987). Thirdly, mentor functions as a symbolizer of experience in situations where the mentee may be unconsciously unskilled about a particular aspect and or may not have the vocabulary needed to verbalized their experience. In this instance, the mentor can symbolize the experience for the protégé by translating something the mentor knows very well to their mentee. These aspects of building a language of experience with one’s mentee and helping the mentee translate and interpret experiences are important skills a mentor needs to have and develop (Daloz, 1987). Fourthly, a mentor may be called upon to play the role of a coach or supervisor where the mentor can provide cycles of assistance to the mentee within a clinical supervision model. On-going practice, observation, and feedback are crucial to this mentoring function. It should be noted that coaching role takes time, and many repetitions may be needed before the skill becomes a permanent part of the mentee repertoire.
The best mentors are who know the things you want to learn. It can be considered that mentors must have good information, respect our goals, dreams and
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decisions, be supportive of our efforts, can be trusted and willing to hear different ideas and suggestions.
MENTEES/ PROTÉGÉS
The individuals who need mentoring, regardless of whether they are students or new teachers are called mentee or protégé. In certain circles they are also called interns.
They come to mentoring situation with an innocent and less experienced knowledge than the mentor. They are eager to learn what they have been promoted or professed by the mentor. If the mentor participates in the mentee’s attempt to create meaning out of commonplace behaviors and experiences he will become a reflective and active researcher. According to Marsha (1995), working with a mentor provides protégés with many of practical insight and understandings which are needed to carry out their roles effectively in the real world. No matter how effective a university-based administrator preparation program may have been, it is quite unlikely that it could have provided participants with the full array of knowledge, skills, and insight needed to function as a successful school participant. As a result, for example in a teacher preparation programme the mentees report that contact with someone who is actually doing the job to which they aspire to do or become is a critical dimension of preparation. While it is not intended here to suggest that mentoring is nothing more than role modeling to enable mentees to learn certain “tricks of the trade”, it is clear that the single greatest benefit described by those who were mentored by more experienced colleagues is that they acquired certain practical knowledge and skills which they could put into effect on their jobs.
