You’re starting to sense that your student is overly reliant on you for help during your mentoring sessions. They lack autonomy and aren’t able to grasp the overall picture of what they’re learning. More than once, they’ve arrived at their session and said, “Sorry, I didn’t get anything done,” or even “Can we do this assignment together?” Don’t panic! 😃 There are techniques you can use to motivate your student and get them more committed to their training.
Gone are the days of the lecture hall when the professor stands and talks at a room full of students. In this chapter, we’ll discover some active learning techniques you can use to make your student an active participant in their own learning.
Adopt Active Learning Techniques
Here are some simple and effective techniques you can apply based on the situation.
I feel like my student expects me to find the answers to their problems.
When your student asks for your help with something—a problem they’ve encountered with a deliverable, for example—respond to them in a way that keeps them engaged:
Hold back and let the student speak.
Turn the question around on them: “How would you solve this problem? Have you thought of any possible solutions?”
Sure, but what if the student’s proposed solution isn’t the best one, and they’re getting off track? 😱
That can happen! 😅 After all, thinking about possible solutions doesn’t necessarily mean finding the right answer. If the student is getting off track, you can give them some ideas for solutions and discuss them together as peers.
Sometimes I spend ten minutes explaining a concept or method to my student. I think they’re listening, but I’m not sure they’re understanding.
Most likely not! 😅 When you’re explaining a concept, be clear, be concise, and engage your student. Here are some tips to help you:
Test their comprehension by asking questions. Name an example and ask them to explain how the concept applies to that example. Do they understand what they’re talking about?
Don’t overload their attention span! After a few minutes, the human brain stops retaining as much information.
Use short sentences and include pauses in your explanations.
I’ll give you an example to illustrate this approach. Let’s say you want to explain the concept of addition to a beginner.
With a more “traditional” teaching method, you’d explain what addition is without having the student learn the concept by trying it out for themselves.
This is what addition looks like: 1+1=2. When I add 1 to 1, I get 2. The plus sign represents addition, and 2 is the sum of 1+1.
With active learning, you ask the student questions about what they observe:
What do you observe here? What’s happening on each side of the equal sign?
OK, I’m getting it now... But I should still explain some basic things if the student doesn’t know what we’re talking about, right?
Your student can draw information from various resources, such as OpenClassrooms courses, project-related resources, and even web searches.
I think I’ve tried everything, but nothing is working—my student is still stuck.
No need to panic, we will find a solution! Have you suggested that your student practice outside your mentoring sessions?
Recommend doing the exercises in OpenClassrooms courses.
Perhaps you have some resources you could share or tell the student to find some on their own!
Suggest that they practice by doing a past deliverable over again and note the method they used to complete it.
But ugh, these techniques take so long! I don’t have the time!
These techniques are simple enough in practice, but you’re right—developing a student’s autonomy can take time. That’s why your first mentoring sessions will be more focused on supporting the student in applying this methodology. You’ll see—soon your student will become more independent with their problem solving! It’s an investment that pays off in the long term. 😁
Over to you!
We’ve prepared this fact sheet summarizing the advice and concepts discussed in this chapter. Don’t hesitate to use it when preparing your mentoring sessions.
Take Advice from Experienced Mentors
Listen to some advice from Mike and Joy based on their experience as mentors:
Let’s Recap!
To help your student be an active learner:
Take a step back and listen to them to identify where they’re getting stuck.
Get them engaged in learning new concepts by:
asking them questions about their own observations.
encouraging them to find their own sources of information.
pointing them toward resources they might find helpful.
Suggest that they practice on their own by completing exercises.
Now you’ve learned a few techniques to make your student an active learner, but how do you keep them motivated throughout their training program? That’s what we’ll discover in the next chapter!
