A program named STEP was introduced in an institute to achieve progress in academics. The program aimed to provide individualized attention to each and every student. It also aimed to stimulate and motivate the learner to perform better in academics. The program was carried for an entire academic year and the results were analyzed at the end. The findings showed that implementation of the program had increased the number of distinctions in the institute and there was reduction in the number of failures in each class. The program was a success among the students and the faculty.

Keywords: Education, Nursing, Mentor, Mentee, Equal opportunity, Teaching, Learning

INTRODUCTION

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. As a teacher, one of your main roles is to motivate your learners to develop their ability and aspiration to learn. The teacher trains and facilitates learning. Her role is not just about teaching but to motivate every student in performing to best of their abilities.

Gaps in education

Teaching pertains to providing equal opportunities to every learner. It is seen that this main objective remains unfulfilled. The teachers focus mainly on learners who show competence but lack the patience and skills to motivate and teach learners who are unable to cope with studies. This creates a bias and divides the class based on their academic performance [1].

Need for study

The institute wanted to create learning and motivating environment amongst all students. It wanted to reduce the gaps and challenge every student and the facilitator to perform to the best of their abilities. We wanted to create a stimulating environment in the entire teaching learning process. Thus, it created a program named “STEP” (Success to Educational Progress) to provide uniformity in teaching learning process [2].

AIM

To ensure that there is upward growth in academics of every student.

 OBJECTIVES

1.       To assess the knowledge and grasping ability of the students

2.       To identify the gaps, strengths, weakness in academics of the mentee

3.       To counsel the student

4.       To mentor and facilitate steps for improving the academic performance

5.       To enable the students to progress in their academic performance

6.       To foster a sense of responsibility among students

PROCEDURE

1.       Categorize the students

a.       The students would be ranked based on their academic performance in the previous board/university examination (Table 1).

 1.       Assign the students

a.       Each faculty would be assigned 10 students each/equal distribution of the students.

b.       The students would be assigned to faculty in such a way that the poor performing students would be given to faculty with maximum teaching experience and the process would be followed in a decreasing order.

2.       Communicate the process to all the stakeholders

a.       Inform the mentor and the mentee regarding the assignment and their individual responsibility towards STEP.

b.       The process will be mandatory for all the students and the faculty.

c.        Take a written learning contract from each student that indicates that they would be responsible for their studies.

Responsibility of mentor

·         To identify the strengths and weakness of students in related to academics

·         To have frequent meetings with the students

·         To council the students as and when required

·         To ensure academic progress [3]

Responsibility of mentee [4]

·         Each student will be responsible to ensure that they take academics sincerely.

·         Student will be responsible for their learning.

·         To ensure that they fulfill the set goals.

4.     Implement the strategies as per the guidelines mentioned for each category (Table 2)

Tips for mentor

1.       Encourage self- assessment.

2.       Align the instructions to learning standards.

3.       Use formative methods for assessment.

4.       Provide consistent feedback and positive reinforcement.

5.       Use the feedback loop at intervals.

RESULTS AND FINDINGS

Section A: This section deals with the details related to STEP and its effectiveness

1.       The STEP program was found to be effective. The STEP program reduced the number of failures in the final exams (Table 3). STEP implementation increased the number of distinctions and first class among the students (Figure 1).

Table 5 indicates that p value of 0.136 is less than 0.05 and hence, H0 is rejected. Thus, H1 is accepted and indicates that STEP implementation was effective in reducing the number of failures.

Section B: This section deals with the opinions regarding STEP

Faculty opinions

a.       Faculty was happy with the STEP implementation. Majority of the faculty (>90%) felt that this program, improved their rapport with the students, provided a guide for academic counseling and assisted in giving equal attention to all the students.

b.       Few faculties felt that students lacked initiative and it was difficult to motivate them to study.

Student opinions

a.       Students were very happy with the STEP program. They verbalized to continue the same. The points they liked about STEP were as follows:

1.       Equal attention to all.

2.       Better rapport was built.

3.       Introduced them to newer apps on mobile.

4.       Provided guidance in learning and assisted the students in preparing time-tables.

5.       Taught the students time management skills.

6.       Increased their self-morale, confidence and motivated them to perform better.

DISCUSSION

The STEP program proved that mentorship is a means for educational progress. It also stressed the need for rendering individualized attention to students. The study identified, that though the individual attention improves the student’s academic performance, there are other factors like the student’s interest, initiative, etc., that could affect studies. This is evident as the program resulted in reduction of number of failures but could not totally eliminate the number of failures. Thus there is a need for other programs like preceptor-ship with the students, group study, etc., that could be worked along with the STEP program.

CONCLUSION

We can conclude that every student has inert abilities. It is the facilitator who would be able to tap these abilities and utilize them for the students. Attention, time management, guidance and understanding would go a long way in student education.

1.       Joyce WW (2019) Perception on mentorship practices among nursing students at Kabarnet Kenya Medical Training College. IOSR-JNHS 8: 17-40.

2.       Barrett M (2014) What exactly is the mentor's role? What is the mentee’s? Available online at https://www.td.org/insights/what-exactly-is-the-mentors-role-what-is-the-mentees

3.       Hale RL, Phillips CA (2019) Mentoring up: A grounded theory of nurse‐to‐nurse mentoring. J Clin Nurs 28: 159-172.

4.       CSEG (1949) Mentee roles and responsibilities. Available online at https://cseg.ca/assets/files/students/Mentee-Roles-and-Responsibilities.pdf