HOW DOES STUDENT MENTORING AFFECT TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS?

Mentoring has been a key part of education, providing support to help students realize their potential. Mentoring a dynamic relationship where mentors aid personal and academic development, teaching skills like goal setting, time management, and problem-solving [2].

Improving time management is crucial for students' success. Current students struggle with deadlines, work, and balancing study and life. For instance, Aga Khan University medical students needed better time management skills despite improvements in other areas [3].

By reviewing the literature, it is possible to determine the positive impact of mentoring on time management. Introducing mentoring in schools can enhance time management skills, its effectiveness in the USA, noting that mentoring helps students with homework strategies, exam preparation, and organization [4, p. 38]. Mentoring improves time management, goal setting, and organizational skills. Peer mentors also reported better time management, communication, and teaching skills. [5, p. 4]

On the other hand, there are also negative sides to mentoring. Mentoring has drawbacks, including increased workload and stress for mentors, negatively impacting their time management and work-life balance [1, p. 4]. Mentors might struggle to manage their time due to the added responsibilities, affecting both mentors and mentees. This review highlights the benefits and challenges of time management mentoring. [6, p. 21]

A study was conducted. Data was collected from NIS students, teachers that have student in mentoring programs. Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, the study combined quantitative and qualitative data from surveys and interviews for comprehensive analysis. Face-to-face interviews followed a standardized schedule for consistency. A convenience sample of 103 NIS Aktobe FMD students, primarily 11th graders, was selected for its ease of access.

Answering the question “what skill needs support most?” , the student responses made it clear that what students most need to improve is the “time management” skill.

Figure 1. Which skill need more assistance

A student’s response to the question “what skill needs support most?” has clearly shown that they need most improvements in terms of time management. Out of 57 responses, 46 chose time management as the answer, suggesting this is a skill that students struggle with and are not good at it. Every student was asked “how does mentoring affect time management skills?” and many said “this skill is improving” while others claimed that mentoring had a positive effect on time management skills.

Figure 2. Opinions of students about impact of mentoring on time management skill

Examine the outcome of interviews. The results of five interviews with student mentors and teachers showed that both groups think alike when it comes to punctuality and responsibility being improved by mentoring. For instance, an NIS Aktobe curator gave an example of a situation where mentoring had a positive impact:

«Well, in terms of time management, at the beginning, for example, last year, when 7th graders had a big problem with time management, they didn’t have time to study lessons , ... , inviting a seventh grader, to sit down with him, talk, explain, creating his daily routine with him, simply even for a day or a week, in the future for about after 5-6 days, that is, it is clear that he is already behaving in a more organized manner and much more collected.» . This quotation suggests how through mentoring academic performance could be improved by building their organization, confidence levels and also their time-management skills.

At last, looking at survey statistics, interview responses and survey answers addressing the main question: what are the effects of mentoring on students’ time management skills show that according to pupils’ opinion resulting from mentorship practices, there has been an improvement in their own perceived ability to manage time which means mentorship improves on this issue among other competencies. Students no longer have problems with managing their studies; therefore, their academic performance increases while managing time.