Student Empowerment through Mentoring and Reverse Mentoring
-B.V.Raghunandan
National Seminar onMEASURES FOR QUALITY ENHANCEMENT AND SUSTENANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
SDM College of Business Management, October 10, 2014
Student Empowerment
• Students are a matrix of bundles of emotion like anger, uncertainty, jealousy, resentment, competition, frustration, disbelief, hatred for the system
• It’s a heady mixture of positive and negative energies• Empowerment comes in the form of converting them
to responsible citizens of social and individual values
Mentoring
• Teachers were mentors originally• Later developments brought in different hues of educational
degrees, institutions, universities, teachers and systems• Teachers role is confined to the teaching of subjects (Value
education has also became a subject)• Counsellors have no personal interest or involvement in the
students• Thus, a Mentor
Complex Family Backgrounds
• Leo Tolstoy, in Anna Karenina, "all happy families resemble each other; all tragic families are tragic in their own way”
• Unhealthy families are tragic families and complexities peculiar only to themselves
• Break-up of joint families produce highly complex and distinct child members
• Students from nuclear families generally seek mentoring the most
Mentoring and Reverse Mentoring
• Mentoring: the Teacher or any other older person shapes the younger subject
• Reverse Mentoring: the process reverses with the younger subject mentors the mentor himself
• Reverse Mentoring happens due to immaturity, lack of knowledge, general awareness or smartness in worldly things on the part of the mentor
The Arduous Process of Becoming a Mentor
• Being truthful• Courage: Not being afraid of any student or a group of
students• Genuine Interest in protecting the interest of students• Not hesitating to punish to bring the erring students into line• Highly knowledgeable and value-based living
A Teacher Transforming into a Mentor• Coverage of curriculum
sufficiently and going beyond it with current affairs and developments
• Being original in approach• Destroying popular
Misconceptions• Having a scientific
temperament• Symbolising a rock in display
of emotions• Assignments to show them
their ignorance and helping them in building up a portfolio
Road-Blocks in Becoming a Mentor• Diplomacy, which is a
part of everyone’s nature
• Postponement of Problems
• Dependence on parents for control
• Conflicting concepts• Institutional Interest• The views of
Administration
Essentials of Reverse Mentoring
• Belief that knowledge is not uni-directional• It is a world in which human knowledge has surpassed human understanding-hence, even
illiterate beedi-workers who employ people to read news may possess comprehensive knowledge
• Not all the mentors are the best in all qualities• Availability of information and knowledge in the electronic media make people at different levels
knowledgeable• Readiness of Mentor to Accept it
Beneficial Impact of Reverse Mentoring• Mentor can save his breath• He can understand the present generation far better• The subject will have a better respect for the mentor• The mentor will become highly knowledgeable in the process -he stands to gain from the experience of his subjects• Mentor can absolve himself of • his misconceptions
THANK YOU