Abstract:

Education requires versatile and resilient teachers adapting their methodology and conveniently combining various teaching approaches and tools to the context. Apart from the traditional teaching role, passing knowledge from teacher to student, literature emphasizes the role of a teacher as a trainer, consultant, mentor, coach or even therapist. This article examines the outcome when applying a methodology combining as main ingredients teamwork, coaching and mentoring in a specific way, in two practice groups in the third academic year of the bachelor’s degree in Industrial Organization Engineering.

The sessions were arranged with teams of 4-5 students each. In a first step the teacher adopted the role of mentoring, by introducing the methodology, background, overall goals, and examples of companies and areas were the practice could be applicable, to give a sense of purpose to the activity and positively influence the students’ predisposition..

In a second step, the proposed activity was read out loud. Then the teacher adopted the role of coaching, posting questions in relation to the goals and benefits that the effective implementation of the practice could bring to an organization, to which competences and in which order of importance students might need to develop the practice effectively, and finally to which extent they could improve individually and as a team.

The third stage was the execution of the practice content, with the teacher still as a coaching. Once completed, each team assessed their achieved goals, the competences developed, and the difficulties faced, and shared their outcome with the rest.

Finally, the teacher, in a role of coaching and mentoring, went over the questions, achievements and competences, and fostered student’s reflection and self-awareness on the conclusions and aspects of improvement, ending by explaining the potential career opportunities in relation to the practice and to the bachelor’s degree in general, in areas and sectors not so obvious, which attracted even more the attention and interest of the students.

The results were really rewarding for all parties; since the start there was a greater interaction and closeness between students and teacher, and each session ended with a spontaneous applause and congratulations we are not used to. This interaction extended beyond the sessions, and a good number of students later contacted the teacher for further guidance.

This methodology appears particularly suitable for university students in their final years, since it makes them think about their professional careers and future roles, allowing them to better sense the benefits and connection of education with them.

Keywords:

Teamwork, coaching, mentoring, self-awareness, motivational learning, competences.