Mentor certificate. Source: Own processing.
After trying myself as a university lecturer, I decided to dedicate more time to sharing my knowledge and helping other people. Luckily, I found Yandex Practicum and their Mentor School and in this article, I'm going to share some of the things I learned throughout my journey of becoming a certified mentor.
It is essential to help students improve their soft skills, teaching hard skills is never enough. Being a designer who cannot communicate their ideas, who cannot hear clients or users, who cannot negotiate or work in a team, can be very very difficult. That's why students are always encouraged to articulate their design decisions, present their ideas, work in teams, speak up, ask questions, help others, etc.
It is also important to create and maintain an open and friendly environment where people feel safe and are not afraid to ask questions, share their thoughts, and ask for help knowing that they will not be ridiculed or judged by their peers or mentors.
There are several types of motivation, each coming from a different source and serving different purposes and it is very useful to be aware of them and to know how to leverage them:
To achieve the best results students should have intrinsic and autonomous motivation which means they will be actively involved in the study process and will take responsibility for their success. Mentors and other team members can foster and support these types of motivation by reminding students of their goals and priorities.
Dunning-Kruger effect. Source: Own processing.
When students learn new skills, they can distort their perception of their abilities. For example, at the beginning of their studies, it seems to them that they are doing really well and almost mastered the skill. Faced with the first difficulties, students fall into another cognitive trap - the "valley of despair." They doubt their knowledge and abilities. If students stay in this trap for too long, they may lose motivation to study further.