A.

The role of Teacher as Mentor

I am not a teacher, but an awakener- Robert Frost. A mentor plays a large role in assisting
pupils developing not only their education but also physically, emotionally and spiritually. In
academics, a mentoring relationship develops over an extended period, during which a pupil's
needs and the nature of the relationship tend to change. A mentor will try to be aware of these
changes and vary the degree and type of attention, help, advice, information, and
encouragement that he or she provides. The Council of Graduate Schools (1995) cites Morris
Zelditch's useful summary of a mentor's multiple roles: "Mentors are advisors, people with
career experience willing to share their knowledge; supporters, people who give emotional and
moral encouragement; tutors, people who give specific feedback on one's performance;
masters, in the sense of employers to whom one is apprenticed; sponsors, sources of
information about and aid in obtaining opportunities; models, of identity, of the kind of person
one should be to be an academic."
In schools, primary especially, teachers perception to the roles of their post as mentor turns
out to be mix reviews which are positive and negative. Some teachers do not aware their role as
mentor which is supposed to be. Based on the interviews done to the teachers, it can be
generalize that teacher alert their role as mentor but do not exactly know their roles as a mentor.
Some teachers said that teacher just mentoring by assisting them in studies while another part
has another perception that their roles more towards guiding and counsel pupils on their needs.
Some of the teachers believe that being a mentor is about building a trusting relationship
with pupils. One of the mentors initial responsibilities is to establish a trusting relationship with
the pupils. Research indicates that mentoring is most effective when the pupils trusts the
teacher. The mentor builds this trust by creating a risk-free learning environment for the pupils
by providing support that is non-judgmental and confidential. Confidentiality invites honesty, risk
taking, and self-reflection by the pupils. While the mentor does not share any evaluative
information about the pupils with anyone however topics, content, and strategies can be shared
with administrators. The relationship gain by the mentor which is the teacher can help the
teacher to know more about the pupils and on the other hand, pupils will feel easy and
comfortable to share anything with the teachers including their private matters. The amount of
attention that a mentor gives will vary widely. A pupil who is doing well might require only
"check-ins" or brief meetings. Another pupil might have continuing difficulties and require
several formal meetings a week; one or two pupils might occupy most of an adviser's mentoring
time. Try through regular contact-daily, if possible-to keep all your pupils on the "radar screen" to

anticipate problems before they become serious. Teacher do not assume that the only pupils
who need help are those who ask for it. Even a pupil who is doing well could need an
occasional, serious conversation. One way to increase your awareness of important pupil issues
and develop rapport is to work with pupil organizations and initiatives. This will also increase
your accessibility to pupils.
Teacher as mentor also willingly arrange regular meeting times with the pupils to structure
conversations around samples of pupil work and other achievement data, so that they can
assist them to see what this work or data shows about pupil understanding and learning and
what future learning and teaching is needed. Kindness plays role here as the teachers able to
spend time with the pupils. Teacher always ready to arrange meeting or gathering with the
pupils without feel hard or difficult to guide and mentor them in a good way. Based on the
interview, some teachers has the opinion that regular teacher also has the responsibility to
spend time with pupils to know their weaknesses and strengths. So, that does not divert the fact
that teacher can be a mentor.
Most of the teachers has a same agreement that teacher can be a good role model which
one of the qualities of being a mentor. Thus, a teacher is also a good mentor to the pupils.
Pupils appreciate mentors who have right answers to every question and best solutions for
every

problem.

Good

mentor

teachers

are

transparent

about

their

own

search

for better answers and more effective solutions to their own problems. Most important, they
share new knowledge and perplexing questions with their pupils in an academically manner.
Teachers that can solve pupils problems always searched by the pupils to guide them. All the
advices and guidance given by the teachers implemented by the pupils and that makes the
teacher seen in a higher level by pupils.
On the other hand, some teachers has different opinion that teacher do not really fulfill all
the criteria to be a mentor. Teacher is not skillful enough to guide pupils. It can be done
academically but not physically emotionally. The good mentor is skilled at providing instructional
support. Good mentors are willing to coach pupils to improve their performance wherever their
skill level. Although this seems obvious, many mentor teachers stop short of providing quality
instructional support. Among the factors contributing to this problem is a school culture that does
not encourage teachers to observe one another in their classrooms. Lacking opportunities for
shared experience, mentors often limit instructional support to workroom conversations.
Although such dialogue can be helpful, discussions based on shared experience are more

powerful. Regardless of the nature of the experience, the purpose is to promote academically
dialogue focused on enhancing teacher performance and student learning.
Although there are different perceptions on the matter of teacher being a mentor, guide or
counsellor, all the teachers support the suggestion that teacher is somehow a guide or mentor
to the pupils. They are being guiding and assisting the pupils in many ways. Teachers helps to
stabilize pupils performance and achievement in their studies or academically. That can be said
as one type of mentoring. Teacher also helps to maintain pupils discipline level. Teachers are
maintaining and assisting pupils to be a good human being which is also one type of mentoring
and guiding that is undeniable. Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission of
knowledge, social capital, and the psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to
work, career, or professional development; mentoring entails informal communication, usually
face-to-face and during a sustained period of time, between a person who is perceived to have
greater relevant knowledge, wisdom, or experience (the mentor) and a person who is perceived
to have less (the protg)". A regular teacher has most of it. Thus, what is the problem on
teacher being a mentor?
As the conclusion, mentoring remains a viable policy option in education. However, for
purposeful mentoring to occur, a prerequisite is the acceptance of its complexity in carrying out
the mentoring function. This implies careful planning. Teachers are valuable resources in
education, and high quality performance in teaching is an essential ingredient of educational
improvement or reform. To assist beginning teachers, it is necessary to support their
performance in the classroom from the very beginning of their teaching careers. Support in the
form of well-designed mentoring programs can be pivotal in inducting new teachers into the
profession and keeping them in education. The stakes are high. Quality teaching is essential if
the mission of education is to be fulfilled. Mentoring can play a critical role in continually
improving the professional knowledge and skills that teachers need to instruct and prepare
students for the next century. However, to be effective, mentoring programs must be developed
that take into account the complexity, process and function of the programs. The best teacher
is not the one who knows most but the one who is most capable of reducing knowledge to that
simple compound of the obvious and wonderful- H.L.Meckens